


This Baby is Love-Proof

by slowdancing (carmenaudrey)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Eventual Smut, Everyone Is Gay, Happy Ending, Jaemin is a dickhead, M/M, Recreational Drug Use, Some fluff too, Teen Romance, renjun hates love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 09:53:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 39,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21318235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carmenaudrey/pseuds/slowdancing
Summary: In his final year of high school, Na Jaemin has it all. He's captain of the football team, popular and lusted after by almost every girl (and boy) who goes to his school. After stroking his own ego one too many times, Jaemin is challenged to a bet where he must make someone fall in love with him. Naturally his friends choose the drama nerd and ultimate love-hater Huang Renjun to be Jaemin's target. In trying to win the bet, Jaemin's attempts to woo Renjun force him to look at his life and consider what he truly wants for himself.Story and title inspired by the song Crush Culture by Conan Gray.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Na Jaemin, Kim Jungwoo/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Comments: 24
Kudos: 453





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by the teen romcoms from the 90s/early 2000s that I loved so much (10 Things I Hate About You, She's All That, A Cinderella Story etc). I wanted to see what a romcom like those would be like if both of the main characters were men. I also really love Renjun and Jaemin as a couple because they are so sweet with each other. I first got the idea to write this from listening to the song Crush Culture by Conan Gray. Each of the chapters start with a lyric from that song. I hope you enjoy reading this because I really enjoyed writing it.

_Crush culture makes me wanna spill my guts out_

Honestly Jaemin had expected the tsunami of love letters and chocolates to spill out of his locker when he opened it that morning. That’s why he had carefully balanced an open binder just underneath his locker to prevent them all from spilling directly onto the floor. It was unusual for him to open his locker and not find a letter or gift from a hopeful girl (or occasionally a guy) confessing their crush on him. Valentine’s Day however was a whole other story: a story where Jaemin spent his lunchtime sorting for the good gifts and then divvying out the rest to his friends.

Approaching his group’s table in the cafeteria at lunchtime, Jaemin dumped his letters and gifts in the middle of the table for all to see.

“Wow” Jisung scoffed. “Good haul this year.”

“I’ll say. It looks like half the school gave you something.” said Jeno. “Is that a fucking Apple Watch?”

Jaemin grabbed the box from the table. “That one’s mine. I get the good shit, you guys get the leftovers remember?”

“Do these tickets to see Drake count as leftovers?” Lucas asked hopefully.

“No way” Jaemin said as he snatched them up as well.

“How much fucking money do girls have at this school?” Mark mused.

Jisung shook his head. “I don’t know but obviously they’re willing to spend a lot of it on our captain here. Is there any girl left in our school that you don’t have wrapped around your finger?”

Jaemin flashed a huge grin. “It’s not just girls. Pretty sure that Apple Watch is from a dude.”

Jeno reached over and grabbed the card that was attached to the watch and checked it out. “Damn. And I thought he was straight too.”

“Maybe he was until he saw me” Jaemin half-joked.

Lucas looked disgusted. “Okay this was fun for the first couple of years but now this has really gone to your head. Not everyone is in love with you, Na Jaemin.”

Jaemin just rolled his eyes at him and gestured towards the huge pile of Valentine’s gifts.

“No Lucas is right” Jeno added. “Your ego has gotten out of hand.”

“Guys it’s not my fault that everyone loves me. It’s just what happens when you’re captain of the football team, and nice, and popular, and good looking, and …” Jaemin was cut off. 

“So you’re saying that everyone’s in love with you?” Mark questioned.

“No” Jaemin assured. “I’m saying that everyone has the potential to fall in love with me.”

Jisung smacked Jaemin on the back of the head. “Idiot”.

Mark grinned. “Well how about we test this out? We pick someone and you have to get them to fall in love with you. If they don’t then you lose and you have to stop acting like such a twat.”

Jaemin just smiled. “Easy. But let’s make it more interesting. Whoever loses the bet has to buy the other’s beer and weed for the rest of the year.”

“Sure” agreed Mark and the two shook hands. “By the way, you only have a month to do it.”

Jaemin’s mouth fell open. “What? No way, that’s too short.”

Mark smirked. “Fine. You get six weeks.”

* * *

Renjun had forgotten that it was Valentine’s Day.

He was blissfully unaware until he had walked through the school gates in the morning and seen a girl and boy exchange gifts covered in red wrapping paper with little pink hearts all over it. From that moment on he couldn’t see anything else but pink decorations and couples being smitten with each other.

It was disgusting.

He kept cursing himself throughout the day for forgetting and not faking sick to get the day off. Now he was stuck surrounded by idiots who thought they were in love.

By the time lunch rolled around, Renjun’s friends were sick of his bad mood.

“Junnie, is the reason you’re being such a bitch because it’s Valentine’s Day?” Jungwoo asked, not making any attempt to tone down his sass.

Renjun narrowed his eyes. Jungwoo had many talents. His voice could belt out any Mariah Carey number you requested and he danced like he was made to backup Beyonce. Empathy however was not one of his many skills.

“Take a look around” Renjun said, gesturing towards the rest of the cafeteria. The school had felt the need to decorate the cafeteria with hearts and red streamers everywhere. To top it off all the couples were eating lunch together today; sitting in each other’s laps and feeding each other their shitty school lunches. The mere sight of it all made Renjun’s stomach churn. “Everyone else is being the unreasonable one today. Why do they have to force this mushy shit onto everyone? Some of us are perfectly happy being alone.”

“I don’t know. Some of it seems nice.” Chenle said, wistfully gazing around.

“Yeah” Donghyuck sighed, eyes darting off to the side. “I wouldn’t mind getting a Valentine from someone.”

Renjun knew what he was looking at before he even followed his gaze. Donghyuck had a sickening crush on Mark Lee; a football player of all things. Renjun had reminded Donghyuck many times that Mark was probably straight and, even if he was gay, wouldn’t date a musical theatre nerd like them. Despite all the constant truth telling Renjun was doing, the boy remained completely infatuated.

Renjun waved his hand in front of Donghyuck’s face in an attempt to snap him out of his loved-up state. “You need to stop with this gross-ass crush Hyuck. He’s straight for fuck’s sake. All those jocks are.”

“Well we don’t know that. In fact we have contradictory evidence.” Jungwoo added.

“Shut up Jungwoo, nobody cares that you made out with Lucas.” Renjun snapped. “You were both drunk and high; it doesn’t prove he’s not straight. It just proves he makes bad decisions.”

“Shut up. You would be so lucky to make out with me.” Jungwoo retorted. “When was the last time you kissed anyone Renjun? Because I think you seriously need to work out all this pent up frustration you clearly have.”

Renjun glared again. “Excuse you but I’m perfectly fine keeping my frustration exactly where it is.”

Jungwoo shrugged. “Suit yourself, but there are plenty of guys on the basketball team that are down to do stuff with guys, just as long as you promise not to tell anyone.”

Chenle gasped. “Really. Who?”

Jungwoo put his index finger to his lips. “Sorry kid. I promised not to tell and you know I’m a man of my word.”

“Bitch just tell us” Donghyuck whined.

“Alright” Jungwoo laughed. “There’s…”

* * *

“So who should we pick for Jaemin to pursue?” Mark asked the group gleefully. Lunch was almost over and they needed to pick someone ASAP.

“I don’t know” Lucas glanced around. He pointed at a table near them. “How about one of the girls in the Christian Youth Club?”

Jaemin grinned and nodded. “Yes please. Mary is super hot, pick her.”

Mark shook his head. “Nah those girls fall in love with any guy that says they like Jesus. We need someone much harder to please.”

“What about that really stuck up girl who runs the school newspaper?” Jisung offered.

“Yeah, maybe” considered Mark. “What was her name again? Elise something?”

“Elise Privy” corrected Jeno, pointing to one of Jaemin’s love letters on the table signed with that very name. “I think she might be a no go.”

Jaemin could not help but laugh. It seemed as if the bet would be won before it even began.

“Fuck” said Mark. “There has to be someone here who wouldn’t want to date you.”

“Maybe we’re being too easy on him. We should pick a guy.” Lucas smiled, looking very pleased with himself. Jeno, Jisung and Mark unanimously agreed.

Jaemin groaned. “C’mon, a guy? Can I not have any fun with this at all?”

“This isn’t about you having fun Jae. This is about seeing if your inflated ego has any grounds in reality.” Mark teased.

Just as the group was about to start suggesting men for the bet, they were distracted by a tiny creature on the other side of the cafeteria and his anti-love tirade.

“Seriously what is everyone’s problem today?” he yelled at a couple that had previously been getting hot and heavy at one of the tables. “Do you think I want to see you suck face for the whole of lunch? I have to eat my food you know, and I can’t fucking do that if you’re constantly making me want to puke. Go find an empty classroom or make out behind the art building like you do every other day of the year. Just because it’s Valentine’s Day doesn’t mean everyone suddenly enjoys all this couple bullshit.”

Realising everyone was staring at him, the boy quickly turned away from the couple and hurried back to his table.

Everyone at Jaemin’s table slowly turned to look at him, smiles wide.

“No” said Jaemin. “Not that guy. He looks insane.”

“The deal was for anyone we choose” countered Mark. “He looks perfect for you.”

Jaemin huffed. “Who even is he?”

“His name’s Renjun” said Jeno. “He’s in a few of my classes. He’s one of those music theatre nerds.”

‘Well at least he already likes guys’ Jaemin presumed. He put his head in his hands. This bet might be more challenging than he thought.

“Well what are you waiting for?” giggled Mark. “Go get him tiger.”

Jaemin pushed himself up out of his chair and tried to compose himself. He grabbed eight different boxes of fancy chocolate and stacked them up in his arms.

“Hey” Jisung protested. “I wanted to eat those.”

“Suck it” Jaemin said. “I need them more than you do.”

Jaemin was nervous on his walk to Renjun’s table but he made sure to portray a confident face. He noticed as Renjun and his friends looked at him suspiciously when they saw him approach them.

“Hey Renjun” Jaemin said brightly, looking right in Renjun’s eyes. “I’m Jaemin.”

“I know who you are” Renjun replied, obviously rather taken aback by the whole situation. “Are you lost?”

Jaemin laughed. He supposed Renjun would never dream of the captain of the football team coming up to him so randomly. The whole situation was a bit absurd. “Actually I was wondering if you’d like these chocolates. I got them all for Valentine’s Day but I can’t eat dairy, and it would be such a shame to throw them away.”

Renjun stared at Jaemin. Something didn’t sit right with him about this interaction.

But he really liked chocolate. And those looked like the fancy kind.

“Fine, set them down here.” Renjun patted the table in front of him.

As Jaemin placed the chocolates down on the table, he flashed Renjun one of his handsome grins.

It was met with a look of pure disgust.

“Thanks for taking these off my hands, Renjun.” Jaemin spoke sweetly. He didn’t move away from the table, desperately trying to think of something else to talk to him about.

“Do you want something else?” Renjun asked, sounding very annoyed.

“Umm yeah actually I do” Jaemin stumbled. “I actually wanted to ask you about, umm…”

“Is this about the flyer I put up?” Renjun asked.

“What?” said Jaemin, confused.

“The math tutoring I’m offering. Did you need a tutor?” Renjun looked at Jaemin like he was an idiot.

“Oh yeah! I want you to be my math tutor. I need so much help.” Jaemin blessed the heavens for this brilliant opportunity. Now Renjun would have to see him again and again; and it would give Jaemin plenty of chances to have Renjun fall for him.

“Yeah I bet" said Renjun. Jaemin was just beginning to realize how rude this kid was. “When would you like to start? My rate is eight dollars an hour.”

“As soon as possible” Jaemin answered. This bet wasn’t going on for very long so there was no time to waste. “I finish football practice at four-thirty. If you’re free we can do it then.”

Renjun shook his head. “No can do. I have rehearsals for the upcoming school musical till five and then I have singing lessons after that. Can you do around seven?”

Jaemin’s eyes widened in surprise. What the hell was wrong with this kid that he made himself so busy with extra-curriculars?

“I can do seven. Where should we meet?” Jaemin asked.

“You can come to my house” said Renjun. He tore a piece of paper from a notebook and began scribbling down an address and phone number. “Here you go.” He handed it to Jaemin. “Call me if you get lost trying to find it. Also don’t be late. I fucking hate it when people are late.”

Jaemin took the paper. “Cool, I’ll see you then.” Jaemin looked up at the rest of Renjun’s table, who were still looking incredibly suspicious of him, and gave a charming smile. “See you everyone.”

As Jaemin turned and walked away, he heard a “What the fuck was that all about?” followed by a very loud shush.

The next six weeks were going to be very interesting.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't ask me why I chose Chen and Sunny to be Renjun's parents because I don't even know myself.
> 
> Also frat boy Taeyong is hilarious to me and I'm so happy I wrote him that way.

_Oh no, don't look in their eyes_   
_ 'Cause that's how they get you_   
_ Kiss you then forget you_

Once Jaemin actually looked at Renjun’s address, he was surprised to see that the house was only a few streets away from his own. How convenient.

As Jaemin walked along the streets to Renjun’s place, he tried to think of tactics that would woo the other boy. Jaemin had never met someone as abrasive as Renjun. He was used to dealing mostly with shy and affectionate girls who already liked him, or the occasional cheerleader who played hard to get and pretended they didn’t think he was attractive. Renjun was different. He had clearly made up his mind about Jaemin without even knowing him, and to top it off he seemed to hate the very idea of being in a relationship.

‘Damn you Mark Lee’ Jaemin thought. ‘How the fuck am I going to get this kid to fall in love with me in six weeks?’

As he approached the house, Jaemin resolved to stay confident in his good looks and attractive personality. He was Na Jaemin. No one could resist him for too long.

Looking up at Renjun’s house, Jaemin couldn’t stop his eyes from flicking around, trying to take in the weird sight before him.

The front yard was filled to the brim with flowers of all different types, growing from mismatched pots and miscellaneous items. Lining the footpath to the front door, Jaemin noticed many different teapots filled with daisies and lavender. Also in the front yard, amongst all the flowers, were various different statues each depicting an erotic scene between two people. He gasped as he realised that the statues were both heterosexual and homosexual scenes. Jaemin started to blush as he saw more and more of the statues. He didn’t even _know_ about half of the positions depicted here.

Finally managing to get to the front door, he knocked four times and waited nervously for someone to come. He wondered what kind of family Renjun was a part of where all this stuff was acceptable to have in their front yard. His ultra-conservative parents would never dream of having something so lewd put on display for everyone to see.

Jaemin gave himself a smile, wishing he had an excuse to bring his parents around here just to see the looks on their faces.

The front door opened and snapped Jaemin out of his thoughts. It was a man, perhaps in his late thirties, with wet and dried clay covering his hands, arms and parts of his face. “Can I help you?”

“I’m here to see Renjun. He’s tutoring me in math.” Jaemin said politely.

“Oh yes he mentioned you. Come in.” The man gestured Jaemin to come in. “I’m Renjun’s father Chen.”

“I’m Jaemin. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Renjun should be in his room. It’s just up the stairs and then it’s the last room down the hall.”

“Thanks. I’ll go see him now.”

“Good luck with the math.”

As Jaemin made his way up the stairs and down the hall, he couldn’t help but notice how the walls were painted with splashes of bright colour and then absolutely filled with pictures of Renjun, his father and his mother (he presumed). Jaemin was rather surprised about how nice it seemed to him, like he was in the presence of a truly loving family.

Renjun’s door was wide open so he peered inside. The room was bursting with musical instruments hanging up on the walls and all around the edge of the room. It looked like someone had attempted to cram an entire music store into a high-schooler’s bedroom. In between the instruments on the walls there were posters to different Broadway shows.

Renjun was definitely a musical theatre nerd.

The boy in question was currently sitting at a keyboard with his back to Jaemin, playing a tune that the footballer didn’t recognise. Jaemin knocked on the door to get his attention.

Renjun immediately whipped his head around to see what the interruption was. Noticing Jaemin he glanced up at the clock on his wall. “You’re late” he said curtly. “I told you I fucking hate it when people are late.”

Jaemin also looked at the clock which read 7:03pm. Was this kid serious?

“I got to your house at seven but I just didn’t get up to your room until now.” Jaemin explained.

“Whatever. Let’s just get started. Give me your math book so I can look over it.”

Jaemin grabbed the book out of his backpack and handed it to him. Renjun started flicking through it as he sat down at his desk. Jaemin grabbed the chair from the keyboard and sat down next to him.

“So” Jaemin began, looking for something to say, “your front yard sure is interesting.”

Renjun didn’t even look up at him and continued to flick through the pages. “My mom’s a florist and my dad is a sculptor – mainly specialising in erotic art. They both had a hand in decorating it.”

“Oh” was all Jaemin could contribute. He looked around, hoping to find more conversation inspiration.

“You sure do have a lot of instruments in here.” Jaemin said, staring at them all.

Renjun sighed and finally looked up from the notebook. “What are you doing?”

Jaemin was shocked. “Huh?”

“You don’t have to do the whole small talk thing and try to get to know me. I get that you have a nice guy reputation to uphold but this isn’t necessary.”

Jaemin had no idea what to say at that point. Most people would just go along with the small talk for at least a bit.

Clearly Renjun wasn’t like most people.

“Alright let’s get started” Renjun began. “From the looks of your work I’m surprised you haven’t been failing this entire year.”

Jaemin couldn’t be mad at Renjun for that, he was right. “I’m not failing but I’m close. I was away for a couple of tests for football so they ended up giving me a class average for them.”

Renjun scoffed. “What a meritocracy we live in. So you need my help in case, God forbid, you actually have to do a test.”

“Yeah, pretty much.” As much as this situation had been completely spontaneous, Jaemin was actually glad for the help. “I can’t fail anything because then I won’t be eligible for any college football scholarships.”

“Well you don’t seem like a complete idiot so we should be able to get you to a C average at the very least.” Renjun said.

Jaemin was taken aback at the almost nice statement from the other boy. “Renjun, was that a compliment?”

Renjun’s mouth fell open in shock. “No, not even close.”

“Okay, can’t wait until I actually receive a compliment from you.” Jaemin flirted.

Renjun rolled his eyes. “Ew, just shut up and let me teach you.”

* * *

When Jaemin left Renjun’s house at 8:30pm he felt defeated.

Jaemin had tried to flirt with Renjun again and again, and each time the other had either insulted him and directed him back towards the math work, or just flat out ignored him. Renjun either had no clue what Jaemin was trying to do, or did know and was extremely disinterested in him. The result was that Jaemin actually did just study for almost an hour and a half. Even worse, he actually learnt something.

Feeling entirely ripped off by the bet, Jaemin pulled out his phone and called Mark.

“Hey bro, what’s up?” Mark answered the call.

Jaemin sighed. “I need you to pick a new person for the bet. Renjun is a completely unfair choice.”

Mark laughed. “A deal is a deal. Why? What’s wrong with him?”

“I think he’s asexual or something. He barely reacted to any of my moves, and trust me some of them weren’t subtle. Seriously, we need to switch.”

“Aww poor baby Jaemin has found someone that isn’t completely infatuated with him. I bet you’re feeling frustrated.”

“Shut up Mark. I’m telling you, this isn’t fair. I at least need some chance of winning this thing.”

“Tough shit man, you can’t switch.” Mark paused for a moment. “Maybe you should talk to your bro. He likes dudes right? Maybe you’re just hitting on him like he’s a girl when you should be hitting on him in a special gay way.”

Jaemin shuddered at the idea of getting dating advice from his older brother. Taeyong was the definition of a frat boy asshole; constantly partying and hooking up with, well, anyone. Taeyong had dated a few dudes before, so maybe that qualified him enough to help out with his dilemma.

“Ugh okay, maybe he could help.” Jaemin admitted.

“Cool, pick up some weed if you go see him.” Mark demanded.

“Fine, just remember that you have to pay me back. This bet isn’t over yet.” Jaemin reminded him.

“Yeah, yeah” mumbled Mark before he hung up.

* * *

Jaemin knocked on Taeyong’s bedroom door in his frat house. He heard some scurrying inside the room before Taeyong called out “Who is it?”

“It’s me” Jaemin responded. “Open up, I need to talk to you.”

“Jaem? Just fucking hang on for one second, we need to put our clothes back on.” Taeyong yelled at the door.

‘We?’ Jaemin thought.

Taeyong eventually opened the door, revealing himself and another man. This guy did not look like a frat boy, but looked rather pristine with his long khaki pants and buttoned up cardigan. Jaemin vaguely wondered what he was doing hanging out with his trash brother.

Taeyong’s booty call greeted him gently and waved goodbye to Taeyong before leaving. “See you tomorrow Jaehyun!” Taeyong yelled out after him.

“Hope I wasn’t interrupting anything” Jaemin said, sitting down on Taeyong’s desk chair.

“Nah, we were finished anyway.” Taeyong assured him. “What brings you all the way to campus at nine-thirty at night? Need some more weed?”

“Yes actually but that’s not the only reason why I’m here.” Jaemin took a deep breath. “I need some advice.”

Taeyong smiled, obviously amused. “Like what kind of advice?”

“I need to know how to get a guy to like you.”

Taeyong burst out laughing and leaned over to smack Jaemin on the shoulder. “I knew you had a gay streak in you. What’s the lucky guy’s name?”

Jaemin shook his head. “His name is Huang Renjun, but I don’t like him. I just need him to fall in love with me.”

Taeyong whipped out his phone, obviously trying to find Renjun’s social media accounts. “Why do you need someone to fall in love with you?”

“It’s just a stupid bet I made with Mark. Anyway I need to know how to hit on guys. Apparently my charms are specifically targeted towards females.”

Taeyong’s eyebrows furrowed. “To be honest, it really isn’t that different picking up guys from picking up girls. You just need to look hot and have some good banter. Are you sure you’re good at hitting on anyone? From what I’ve seen, girls just offer themselves up to you on a silver platter and you don’t even have to do anything.”

Jaemin was annoyed by this. Could it be possible that he, Na Jaemin, hadn’t developed any game because he had never needed to? The thought worried him a little.

“Anyway, getting someone to fall in love with you is another story entirely.” Taeyong continued. “Oh I found his Instagram.”

Jaemin moved to Taeyong’s side, wanting to see.

“Damn” Taeyong breathed. “He’s cute as fuck. If things don’t work out between you two you should send him my way.”

“He’s still a minor” Jaemin reminded him. Looking at Renjun’s photos, he did look pretty good. Not that Jaemin was attracted to him though.

“Oh yeah, maybe in a year’s time then.” Taeyong realised. “Looks like he’s a real artsy kid. Not the usual type you go for.”

Jaemin groaned. “I know. And he also just doesn’t seem to want a relationship at all. He totally freaked out at this couple today just because it’s Valentine’s Day. I seriously have no more moves to play.”

Taeyong sighed. “Look, you want him to love you, right? You’re just going to have to become the guy that he would fall in love with. Be irresistible. Find out what he likes and then use that to your advantage.”

Jaemin looked up at Taeyong. “You know, that actually sounds like good advice.”

“Excuse you, I always give good advice. Now give me fifty bucks and I’ll give you some weed.”


	3. Chapter 3

_I know what you’re doing, tryna get me to pursue ya_

It was the day after Valentine’s Day, and Renjun was already feeling a bit better. No one was exchanging gifts, the decorations were gone and the couples had migrated back behind the art building to discreetly make out.

Renjun almost started to smile, until he heard a guy asking some girl if they could be ‘Facebook official’ to which she squealed in delight.

What the fuck was wrong with these people?

Feeling disgusted once more, Renjun made his way to the cafeteria, sat down with his friends and immediately started to bang his head against the table.

“What the fuck is wrong with you now?” Chenle asked, scowling.

“It’s the same thing that was wrong with me yesterday. Too much love in the air. It’s making people act gross.” Renjun said still with his face in the table.

“Speaking of love” Jungwoo joined them, “how was your date with Na Jaemin yesterday?”

Renjun pushed his face up from the table. “It wasn’t a date, idiot. I was tutoring him in math. Good Lord he needed it as well.”

Jungwoo frowned. “So he didn’t even ask you to suck his dick? What is wrong with footballers these days?”

Renjun groaned. “For the final time Woo he’s straight! Also if he’d asked me to suck his dick I would have kicked him the fuck out of my house.”

“Why? He’s cute. And God knows you aren’t getting any at the moment.”

“I’m not getting any by choice. How many times do I have to say that? When I want to suck someone’s dick, I will suck someone’s dick. When I want to fuck someone, I will fuck someone. Until then please shut the fuck up about how I’m not getting any.”

Renjun didn’t understand why Jungwoo was laughing so hard.

“Um, hi Renjun.”

Shit. Renjun turned around to see Jaemin standing right behind him. His face immediately turned beet red. “Hey Jaemin, do you need something?” he managed to squeak out.

“I just wanted to organise when our next tutoring sessions will be.” Jaemin said as he took the empty seat next to Renjun. “We should swap schedules and see what times work for the both of us.”

“Yeah, okay” Renjun agreed. “What have you got on during the week?” He took out a notepad to write down Jaemin’s schedule.

“I have football practice every day after school till four-thirty.”

“Uh huh” Renjun said, writing the info down. “What else?”

Jaemin looked at him blankly. “That’s it.”

“That’s it?” Renjun was surprised. “That’s all your extra-curriculars? And you can still get into college?”

Jaemin gestured to himself. “Football star, remember? Anyway some weekends I’m also not free because we have a game on. Or there’ll be a party at my brother’s frat house. Either way some weekends I’ll be occupied with other things.”

Renjun just rolled his eyes. “Well I guess you’ll be working around my schedule more than I’ll be working around yours.”

“Why, how much stuff do you do?”

“My extra-curriculars pretty much all happen after school. Monday I have musical rehearsal and dance class. Tuesday I have jazz band practice and piano lessons. Wednesday I have theatre sports club and dance class. Thursday I have musical rehearsal and singing lessons. Friday I have choir practice and then I help my mom out at her florist shop.”

Jaemin couldn’t do anything but slow blink at Renjun as he tried to process all that information. After a few moments he said “So the seven o’clock time works for you the most then?”

Renjun nodded. “I don’t mind working a bit later. How many times a week do you want to do this?”

Jaemin wanted to spend as much time with Renjun as possible to maximise his chances of wooing the boy, however he didn’t want to come on too strong. “How about three days a week?”

“Okay.” Renjun was a little taken aback but was also grateful for the cash it would bring. “You can come over again tonight if you want to.”

“Yeah” Jaemin nodded. “Sounds good.” He turned to the rest of Renjun’s friends. “I’m sorry, I’m being rude. I haven’t asked you all what your names are.”

“That’s not necessary Jaemin, you can leave…” Renjun was interrupted.

“I’m Jungwoo. Nice to meet you Jaemin.” Jungwoo extended his hand across the table for Jaemin to shake.

“I’m Chenle, and this in Donghyuck.” Chenle smiled and pointed to Donghyuck, who gave Jaemin a small wave.

“Nice” smiled Jaemin. “And are you all…”

“Gay?” Jungwoo interrupted again. “Yes, extremely. You can let all your closeted football teammates know.”

Renjun was mortified but Jaemin just chuckled. “I was going to ask if you were all into dance, drama and music like Renjun is.”

“Yeah we’re all into the same stuff, though none of us do as much stuff as Renjun. He’s crazy.” Chenle replied helpfully.

“We’re all in the musical though.” Donghyuck perked up. “It’s next week on Thursday. You should come and bring the football team.”

Renjun couldn’t resist smacking Donghyuck for saying that.

“What?” he cried as he was hit. “We need to sell enough tickets to the fucking thing otherwise they won’t even let us perform it.”

“Jaemin doesn’t want to see our musical, Hyuck. Don’t burden him by asking.” Renjun said, taking a sip of Chenle’s chocolate milk.

“Actually I’d love to come. When is it?”

Renjun spat out the milk. Luckily most of it landed on Jungwoo, who just grumpily grabbed a packet of tissues out of his bag and started dabbing his face clean.

Once Renjun composed himself, he turned to Jaemin. “You really want to come see my musical?”

Jaemin smiled widely. “Sure it sounds like a good time. I’ll try to bring as many of the team as I can.”

Renjun still couldn’t believe what was happening. “Do you even know what musical we’re doing?”

“No, but you’ll be in it so it’s bound to be great.” With that, Jaemin got up from the table. “See you tonight, Renjun.”

After Jaemin left, Renjun tried to comprehend everything that had happened.

Jungwoo laughed at him. “Straight huh? Then what the fuck was that?”

Renjun couldn’t even muster up the willpower to tell him to fuck off. He was still too confused.

Did Na Jaemin have a crush on him? Did he just want to fuck him?

Renjun groaned and started to bash his head against the table once more.

* * *

“I think we should stop, we’ve done enough for now.” Renjun said, closing the math textbook with a loud thud.

Jaemin looked up at the clock: 8:00pm. One hour of hard core math was definitely enough for him. “Yeah let’s stop.” He packed everything up into his backpack.

Renjun got up and stretched his arms out above his head, before tossing himself onto his bed. His eyes got very wide when he noticed Jaemin scooching in next to him.

“So what is the musical you’re doing?” Jaemin asked as he moved next to Renjun.

“We’re doing Hairspray” replied Renjun, clearly a little flustered.

“Oh cool. I’ve heard it’s really good.” Jaemin smiled, happy they were engaging in something other than math.

“Yeah it would be good if you saw it on Broadway. Ours is probably going to suck.” Renjun said.

“I’m sure you’ll be great” assured Jaemin. “Plus I’ll be there cheering you on. That has got to make you feel good.”

Renjun looked him in the eyes. “You really don’t have to come.”

“Like I said before, I want to come.”

“But why?” Renjun almost yelled. “You don’t exactly seem like a guy that would enjoy musicals. Why the fuck would you come see the shitty musical being held at your high school?”

Jaemin smiled at him and leaned in. “I’m going for you, silly.”

Renjun reeled back and got up off the bed. “Look I don’t know what you mean by that but I’m not really looking for anything right now so…”

Jaemin cut him off. “I know, I heard what you said at the cafeteria today. For now, I just want to get to know you better.” Jaemin didn’t think it was a good idea to make a false confession to Renjun yet. It would definitely scare him away.

“Oh, okay.” Renjun said, getting back on the bed. “If you try and do anything sketchy I’ll rip your face off.”

Jaemin just laughed at him. Renjun had this weird way of being cute and needlessly aggressive at the same time.

Once Renjun had settled back on the bed, he turned to Jaemin. “So, do you even like guys that way?”

“I don’t know” Jaemin answered, actually telling the truth. “I definitely like girls but I might like guys too. I haven’t figured it out yet.” He looked at Renjun. “How did you know? That you like boys, I mean.”

Renjun paused for a moment before answering. “I didn’t really have a typical upbringing. My parents are very liberal and taught me that gender doesn’t really matter when it comes to love, so I always just had crushes on whoever I thought was cool. It wasn’t until I started getting physical with people that I realised I pretty much exclusively prefer guys.”

“Huh” Jaemin breathed out. “So you’re saying I should do stuff with a dude to figure out my sexuality?” Jaemin took the opportunity to madly flirt.

Renjun didn’t notice. “No it’s different for everyone. You’ll figure it out for yourself.”

Jaemin’s shoulders deflated. This kid was impenetrable.

“Would your parents mind if you were gay?” Renjun asked softly, probably worried he was overstepping boundaries.

“Probably, I’m not sure. They’re pretty conservative. My older brother dates guys sometimes but he’s never mentioned it to them, so I’m not sure how they would react.”

The conversation fell silent after that. Jaemin could see Renjun thinking hard about the situation, probably trying to think of something encouraging to say. Through all the angst and bravado, Jaemin was realising that Renjun had a sweet and caring side too; one that would help anyone who needed him.

Jaemin studied Renjun a bit more. Objectively, he was quite attractive. His face was as beautiful as any girl’s; his skin was smooth and soft looking. His fringe, which was usually gelled back at school, was hanging down over his forehead and eyes.

Without thinking, Jaemin reached out and brushed Renjun’s hair away from his eyes.

Renjun’s eyes went very wide. “Yah, I said don’t do anything sketchy!”

Jaemin was just about to defend his actions when his phone started to ring. He fished it out of his pocket and looked to see who it was: Taeyong. Mumbling a quick apology to Renjun, he took the call.

“What’s up Tae?”

“Bro! We’re having a giant party at the house tomorrow night. Rally the boys and come get smashed.”

A Saturday night party sounded like a pretty good idea to Jaemin. “Yeah cool. We don’t have anything on so everyone should be there.”

“Sweet. Invite that lovely twink you’re trying to make fall in love with you, I want to meet him. Also he’ll probably like you a lot more if he’s drunk.”

Taeyong did have a point. Renjun needed to loosen up if he was going to get anywhere with him. Jaemin was also curious to see what Renjun would be like with his guard down.

“Alright, I’ll ask him. See you tomorrow night.”

“See you later Jaem.”

Jaemin put his phone away and crawled back onto the bed. “That was my older brother; he’s having a party tomorrow night.”

“Cool” nodded Renjun, clearly not very interested.

Jaemin sighed. “Look I know this isn’t really your thing but would you like to come? You can invite your friends too, so you’re not all by yourself there.”

Renjun raised an eyebrow at him.

“What? I promise you’ll have a good time if you come.” Jaemin defended.

Renun laughed. “Sorry, it just feels like hell has frozen over. I can’t believe the captain of the football team is inviting me to a college frat party.”

Jaemin chuckled. “You should feel honoured.”

“I feel weird.” Renjun replied. “Sorry if I’m getting this all wrong but it feels like you’re trying to get me to pursue you, like, romantically.”

The one thing Jaemin hadn’t thought about was Renjun figuring out the bet all by himself. Now he was worried that this whole thing would be over before it even begun.

“Like I get it’s nice to be wanted” Renjun continued, “but maybe you should just try being friends with someone and seeing if it goes anywhere.”

Jaemin was a bit taken aback. Was Renjun of all people giving him relationship advice?

“Its weird hearing love advice from you when all I’ve seen you do is be annoyed by the very existence of couples.” Jaemin joked.

Renjun laughed. “Fair enough, but I don’t hate love. I just hate this high school crush culture we have, where people say they’re going to be together forever and then break up three weeks later. It’s all so fake and shallow. People who date in high school don’t actually care about whom they’re dating, just that they are dating someone.”

“Huh” was all Jaemin could say. He was surprised that he actually agreed with the thrust of what Renjun was saying. He’d had so many girlfriends throughout high school that he didn’t even really know before he started dating them. They were just hot and on the cheerleading team, so it seemed like a good idea; the right thing to do. Jaemin had never really thought about dating someone because you liked their personality and were friends with them.

Wanting to change the topic, Jaemin asked “So do you think you’ll come to the party?”

Renjun hummed. “I’ll think about it. I’ll only come if Jungwoo, Chenle and Donghyuck can come. I don’t think I’m game enough to go alone.”

“But you wouldn’t be alone, I’ll be there.”

Jaemin felt both proud and elated when Renjun actually smiled at him for that.

Maybe he still had a chance at this bet after all.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you ask, Jisung and Chenle don't get together in this story. They're just friendly. Everyone else has a little something going on though so don't get too upset.

_All they're feeding you is beautiful lies_  
So hide in the bathroom  
'Til they find someone else new

“Remind me why I’m currently driving you all to a frat party at the college that is an hour away?”

It was Saturday night and Renjun, Donghyuck and Jungwoo were being driven by Chenle to the party Jaemin had invited them to. Renjun had been on the fence about going, but once he told Jungwoo and Donghyuck about the invitation, all choice had been taken away from him. Chenle had been roped into being the designated driver and had not stopped complaining about it the entire way there.

“Well firstly there’s the free booze and free weed we’ll inevitably get” replied Jungwoo who was currently in the passenger seat, using the rear-view mirror to help him apply lip gloss.

“None of which I can enjoy because I’m driving us home” grumbled Chenle.

“And there’ll be plenty of hot college guys.” Jungwoo argued again.

“They’ll all be either straight or too drunk to kiss properly” countered Chenle.

“And most importantly” Jungwoo said, “Hyuckie wants to see what his crush is like outside of school and possibly even interact with him. You’re being a good friend by driving him.”

It was true. Once Donghyuck had heard that Jaemin’s friends were going to this party he had joined Jungwoo in insisting that they go. Any chance to see Mark was more than enough reason for him to want to go.

Chenle sighed. “You better fucking talk to him Hyuck, otherwise this really won’t have been worth it.”

“Don’t put all this pressure on me” whined Donghyuck from the backseat. “Besides Renjun should be the one making moves, not me. Jaemin actually seems to like him.”

Renjun protested. “He does not. At best he wants to do some gay experimenting with me.”

“Oh oh” Jungwoo positioned the mirror so he could see Renjun. “What happened to him definitely being straight?”

“I don’t know. We talked after tutoring last night and it seems like he’s going through a bit of a questioning phase. Doesn’t mean he isn’t straight though.”

The group took a moment to process this information.

“When you see his dick, let me know how big it is. I’ve always been curious.”

“Shut up Jungwoo!”

* * *

“So Renjun’s seriously coming to this party?” Jeno asked Jaemin in disbelief.

The party was in full swing and Jaemin’s group of friends were starting their night in the kitchen. Jaemin and Mark were (poorly) mixing some drinks together and Lucas was rolling a few joints for them to share.

“Yep” Jaemin said proudly. “He’s bringing his friend’s along but I’m planning on having a little alone time with him so I can lay on some more charm. Who knows, maybe this bet will be over tonight.”

Mark shook his head. “Don’t get cocky boy. Besides, a drunk ‘I love you’ doesn’t count. He has to actually be in love with you.”

“I know that” jeered Jaemin. Secretly he was rather disappointed. A drunk ‘I love you’ seemed within the realm of possibility. A proper ‘I love you’ from Renjun seemed rather unlikely.

“Still I’m impressed you got him to come here” said Jisung. “Clearly he doesn’t hate your guts."

Lucas hummed, “You are doing a lot better than we thought you would. Hey do you know if Jungwoo is coming with Renjun?”

“I think so” said Jaemin, taking a sip of his drink. “Why? Do you know him?”

“A little” said Lucas, licking the paper and sealing the blunt he was rolling. “Should we light this up yet?”

The boys all murmured in agreement and made their way outside to smoke and chat in the fresh air. Once they had all congregated on the front porch and were happily smoking, Jaemin noticed a car had pulled up to the house and Renjun was getting out the back seat. “Renjun!” he yelled and waved. Renjun waved back to let him know he had heard, and then proceeded over to Jaemin with his friends in tow.

“Glad you could make it” Jaemin said, slinging his arm around Renjun’s shoulders. The boy visibly flinched at the contact but didn’t pull away. “These are my friends: Jeno, Mark, Jisung and Lucas.”

Renjun and his friends introduced themselves next, and after the required pleasantries the two groups fell into an awkward silence.

Chenle, who looked extraordinarily grumpy, was the first to break the silence. “This sucks, I’m going to go shoot hoops with those frat boys over there.” He pointed to two boys playing basketball at the half-court attached to the side of the house, then walked off.

“Designated driver” explained Renjun.

“Ooh I want to play too” said Jisung, and followed Chenle to the court.

“So who’s going to get me good and drunk?” asked Jungwoo, straight to the point as usual. Jaemin couldn’t help but notice that Jungwoo had dressed up a little tonight and was possibly even wearing makeup. He wondered if he was trying to impress someone.

Lucas coughed. “Umm, I’ll show you where the drinks are.” The two headed off into the house together. Jeno left as well when he noticed some members of his ice hockey team pull up in the front yard.

“So Renjun” Mark began, “how goes the tutoring with Jaemin?”

At this point, Jaemin still hadn’t removed his arm from Renjun. He wanted Mark to think this was going a lot better than it was. He could sense Renjun was getting annoyed by the way he shifted next to him.

“Its fine” Renjun answered Mark. “It will take a lot of work before Jaemin starts getting decent marks but he should get there eventually.”

“So how long do you think it will take? About six weeks?” Mark said nonchalantly.

‘Fuck you Mark Lee’ thought Jaemin. He was trying to intimidate him, but it wasn’t going to work.

Renjun, however, was just a bit confused. “Yeah maybe, it’s hard to say when we’ve only had two sessions together.” Renjun had obviously had enough of Jaemin’s contact as he gently removed his arm from around his shoulder.

“So Jaemin, have you asked your teammates about coming to the musical next week?” Donghyuck finally joined the conversation.

Jaemin hadn’t yet as he had been too distracted with planning his moves for the party.

“What’s this about?” Mark asked, very intrigued.

Donghyuck looked disappointed. He probably assumed that Jaemin wasn’t sincere when he said he would invite the team. “Jaemin’s coming to our school musical next week and he said he would ask you guys to come too. It’s just that we have to make enough money through ticket sales for the school to say it’s worth running the show, and we aren’t quite there yet.”

Mark chuckled, apparently a little intrigued by Donghyuck. “Well sounds like we all need to haul ass and buy some tickets. Can you show me where to get them from at school on Monday?”

“Sure” Donghyuck stammered out. Jaemin wondered why he was so nervous talking to Mark, yet hadn’t been nervous at all around him. “Umm, can someone show me where the drinks are? I’m a little thirsty.”

Mark handed the blunt he was holding to Jaemin and downed the rest of his drink. “I’m due for a top-up, I’ll show you.” With that, Mark and Donghyuck entered the house, and Renjun and Jaemin were left alone.

“You want to share this?” Jaemin asked Renjun, holding up the barely smoked blunt.

Renjun nodded, delicately taking it from his hands and taking a drag. Jaemin couldn’t help but notice the way the joint hung between his slender fingers, and the way the smoke drifted from his pretty lips.

Jaemin swallowed thickly. He watched as Renjun made his way over to the hammock that was hanging near them and messily dumped himself in it.

“Hey, move over” Jaemin said, attempting to place himself gently besides Renjun.

“What? No.” Renjun scowled hard but Jaemin prevailed in squishing himself next to Renjun in the hammock. He took the joint back from Renjun and took a deep drag.

The two were silent for a little while, passing the blunt back and forth, and gently swinging side to side in the hammock. Soon enough Jaemin felt the effects of the weed and the few drinks he had kicked back earlier. He felt relaxed, happy and a little lighter.

“I’m glad you came” he said to Renjun. “I honestly thought you wouldn’t.”

Renjun laughed beside him. “Jungwoo didn’t really give me a choice. He really likes parties. Especially ones where he can get wasted and make out with a bunch of dudes. I bet you already know about that though because of Lucas.”

“What?” Jaemin was confused. “Why would Lucas know that Jungwoo likes to make out at parties?” Then it dawned on him, why else would he know? “Did Lucas and Jungwoo hook up?”

Renjun chewed on his bottom lip as Jaemin made his realisation. “Please don’t tell Lucas that you know. I didn’t realise he wasn’t telling people about it. I thought you already knew.”

Jaemin was slightly hurt. Lucas had always presented himself as straight and he had never questioned that. Jaemin thought that of all the people in their group, Lucas would be okay with telling him if he had been with a guy. Apparently not.

“I won’t mention it to him, but can you tell me how it happened?” He was still curious about it.

“It was on the night of Homecoming at the after party. You know the one at Wendy’s house? Anyway I’m not sure how it started but Chenle walked in on them in one of the bathrooms. Apparently they were going at it pretty hard so Chenle pulled Jungwoo out of there before it could lead anywhere serious. They were both pretty smashed so he thought it was better to prevent something either of them might regret.”

Jaemin blinked slowly a few times. “Lucas didn’t drink or smoke on Homecoming night. He had an early flight to Hong Kong the next morning so he needed to drive home that night.”

Renjun gasped. “Are you sure?”

“I’m positive.”

“Wow.” Renjun looked back up at the ceiling. “Is Lucas gay?”

“If he is, he never told me.” With his sluggish weed brain, Jaemin was having a hard time processing all this information. He tossed the finished blunt aside and got out of the hammock. “Want to get a drink with me?” He reached his hand out to Renjun to help him get out.

Renjun nodded and took his hand. Jaemin tried to keep holding onto it however Renjun twisted his hand around, forcing him to let go. The two made their way into the house.

Inside, in the living room, the music was ten times louder and obnoxiously bassy. People were either jumping up and down - spilling their drinks everywhere - or were grinding up against someone. Jaemin grabbed Renjun’s shoulders from behind him and steered the boy through the crowd and into the kitchen.

Jaemin was surprised to find that Mark and Donghyuck were still together, seemingly just chatting and getting to know each other. Jaemin also picked up on the huge grin that spread across Renjun’s face after seeing the two. When Mark noticed that they had walked in, he glared at them, trying to gage if anything had happened.

“What would you like to drink, Renjun?” Jaemin asked.

“What do you have?” he asked back.

“What don’t we have?” Taeyong yelled enthusiastically as he entered the kitchen. “We have beer, cider, vodka, tequila, rum, jager… Whatever you want really?”

Jaemin almost laughed at how cute Renjun was when he wrinkled his nose at the word ‘jager’. “I’ll just have some beer.” Jaemin didn’t take Renjun as an experienced drinker so he was glad he chose a lighter option.

“You got it” Taeyong said, pointing finger-guns at Renjun. He proceeded to pour Renjun a beer from a keg and hand it to him. “I’m Taeyong, Jaem’s older brother.”

Renjun sipped his beer. “Nice to meet you.”

Taeyong started fixing himself some drinks. “Hey Jaem, just a heads up, if you’re trying to find Lucas he might not be around for a while. He asked me for my room key about two minutes ago.”

Renjun and Jaemin grew wide eyed and looked at each other.

“Damn, how did he pick up a chick that fast?” wondered Mark.

Donghyuck looked a little confused by Mark. “But he was with Jungwoo before. They’re probably…”

“Jungwoo must have wanted to dance and left Lucas alone. You know what he’s like once he hears a GaGa song.” Renjun quickly cut him off. He didn’t want to accidentally ‘out’ Lucas more than he already had.

“Anyway, just get my key back if you see him.” Taeyong picked up the two red solo cups he’d been dumping various liquors into. “Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go get a very prim and proper accounting student so drunk that he’ll want to do all the kinky shit he’s too afraid to normally do. Have fun boys.”

“Not as much as you, I’m sure” joked Renjun. Taeyong flashed him a big smile before he exited the kitchen. Renjun turned to Jaemin. “You brother sure is something special, isn’t he?”

He laughed. “That’s one way to describe him.”

* * *

Over the next few hours of the party, despite Renjun’s predictions, he found himself having a good time. He continued to hang out with Donghyuck, Jaemin, Mark and eventually Jeno after he’d come back from his hockey friends. They drank, danced, and even played beer pong at one point. Renjun worried slightly that he and Donghyuck were getting a bit too inebriated, but felt confident that Jaemin and Mark would take care of them if need be.

At some point, Chenle and Jisung made their way inside the house and joined up with the other boys, giggling and a little sweaty. Renjun was happy that Chenle had managed to turn his night around and was actually smiling. Renjun and Donghyuck took a break from dancing to rush over and pull Chenle aside, keen to let him know what had been happening.

“Woah, hey guys, what did I miss?” Chenle asked as they dragged him away.

“Jungwoo and Lucas are fucking!” shrieked Donghyuck over the loud music.

“Well we don’t know exactly what they’re doing.” Renjun explained. “We just know that they’ve been in Jaemin’s brother’s room for a couple of hours now.”

“Damn” Chenle whistled. “Well they can’t have gotten drunk enough for them to not know what they’re doing this time, so I guess it’s cool.”

“Apparently Lucas didn’t drink or smoke on the night of homecoming, so he knew what he was doing all along.” Renjun revealed.

“What?” The two other boys cried out together.

“Jaemin told me” said Renjun.

“What the fuck has been happening lately? Everything has gone crazy.” Chenle said, looking bewildered. “The most popular guy in school appears to have a crush on Renjun. Lucas, the straightest guy in school, is at least a little gay. Hyuck is actually talking to the crush he’s been watching from afar for a year, and I just kicked some jock’s ass in basketball and he seemed fine with it.” Chenle took a deep breath. “Like seriously, has hell frozen over?”

Renjun looked over at Jaemin who was smiling at Jisung, his beautiful grin on full display. “Yes” he said, “hell has definitely frozen over.” As he was looking, he noticed that Lucas was now present with the other boys. “Lucas is back.”

Renjun, Donghyuck and Chenle made their way back to the footballers.

“So where’s this chick you’ve been with?” Jeno asked Lucas.

“Umm she just had to leave. She has an early class tomorrow.” Lucas said uncomfortably.

“Ooh college girl, nice.” Mark congratulated. “You picked her up so quick man, I’m impressed.”

“Lucas, did you happen to see Jungwoo recently?” Renjun asked, trying to keep up appearances.

“Yeah I think I saw him in the bathroom upstairs before I came down.”

“Thanks.” With that, Renjun, Chenle and Donghyuck all headed upstairs.

“What’s that all about?” Renjun heard Mark ask behind him.

Jungwoo was still in the bathroom when the boys reached it, reapplying his lip gloss and fixing his hair.

“So…” Chenle began. “Lucas, huh.”

Jungwoo smiled devilishly into the mirror. “He definitely isn’t straight.”

“Did you two, you know?” Donghyuck asked innocently.

Jungwoo put away his lip gloss. “No, not fully. It was still very satisfying though. Have you seen the size of his hands?” That comment made Chenle wince as he obviously imagined what had happened.

“So what took you so long then?” asked Donghyuck. “You guys were away for hours."

Jungwoo shrugged. “We talked.”

“You talked?”

“Yeah. We talked. A lot” said Jungwoo, a small smile on his lips. “Lucas is actually a very interesting person, sweet too. He asked for my number.”

Renjun whistled. “Well that’s the gayest thing about this whole situation.”

“He told everyone he hooked up with a girl.” Chenle stated.

Jungwoo sighed. “Yeah, he said he was going to do that. I think he’s like Jaemin: going through a questioning faze."

The group fell silent for a little bit. Eventually Renjun spoke up. “I always thought that jocks had it way easier than us, and I still do, but at least we could actually come out to each other. Jaemin and Lucas are going through the same thing, and Mark probably is too considering how attached he was to Hyuck tonight, but they won’t say anything to each other. It’s pretty sad.”

“Wait, what happened with Mark and Hyuck?” Jungwoo demanded to know.

“We just talked” whined Donghyuck. “He certainly didn’t act like he was anything but straight.”

“Whatever” said Chenle. “Do you think you’ll see Lucas again if he asks?”

Jungwoo shrugged. “That’s a question for the future. He actually has to text me first.”

Renjun smiled at Jungwoo, petting his head fondly. “Want to go back to the party?”

“Fuck yes” he emphasised each word. “I’ve been dying for a dance.”

Once the boys did get back to the dancefloor, Jungwoo proceeded to dance as lewdly as possible, making sure to grab Lucas’ attention as well as a few frat guys. With all the drinks he’d had, Renjun felt brave enough to join him. He moved his body sensually to the music, rolling his hips from side to side, arching his back and dropping down towards the floor. He could hear the cries of encouragement from horny frat boys and it spurred him on; moving his body sinfully to the music.

A few of the frat boys got too excited and moved in on Jungwoo and Renjun. Renjun didn’t care when some random guy started to grind up on him, but clearly this view was not shared with everyone.

“Back the fuck off man.” Jaemin said as he pushed the guy off him.

“Chill dude, I was just trying to enjoy the show” said the guy, clearly annoyed he was interrupted.

“He wasn’t putting on a show, so don’t touch him” snarled Jaemin.

The frat guy whistled. “Dude you saw him right, as if he wasn’t begging for someone to come touch him.”

Renjun had just about enough of being ignored in this conversation. “I wasn’t begging for anything. I was dancing, that’s all.”

Jaemin looked smug until Renjun turned to him. “And who do you think you are? Stopping a guy from dancing with me like you’re my boyfriend. We’re _barely_ even friends.”

Jaemin was clearly shocked. “I’m sorry I just thought that you needed…”

“I don’t need you Jaemin. I don’t need a guy to protect me. I can do just fine on my own.” Renjun finished his sentence for him.

Jaemin had his mouth open like he was going to say something but he never did, so Renjun just kept talking.

“I thought I was pretty clear about setting boundaries and telling you I didn’t want to be with anyone, but maybe you haven’t got the message. I don’t want to date you Jaemin. I don’t even want to fuck you. I’m perfectly happy being alone, so don’t go acting like we are going to become something because we won’t.”

With that, Renjun started making his way through the crowded house, giving signals to his friends that it was time to leave. Getting the message, his friends dropped what they were doing and headed out the door.

“Renjun, wait!” Jaemin followed them outside. “Can we at least talk for a bit?” Renjun thought that Jaemin sounded annoyed more than anything else.

Renjun shook his head. “I’ve said what I needed to say. You just need to accept it, especially if you still want to be tutored by me.”

“But…”

“Jaemin” Renjun said with finality. “I’ll see you on Monday.” He got into the car.

Chenle, Jungwoo, Renjun and Donghyuck drove off into the night; leaving a defeated Jaemin behind them.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully this chapter inspires you to watch Hairspray if you haven't already. It's awesome and singing the soundtrack at the top of your voice is good for the soul.

_I don't care if I'm forever alone  
I'm not falling for you_

_'Cause this baby is loveproof_

History class sucked. Well almost every class sucked according to Jaemin, but today history sucked the most. Probably because Mark was sitting next to him, teasing him about how it had only taken him three days to destroy any chance he had of winning the bet.

“Bro you’d better get a part-time job, I don’t think the allowance your parents give you will cover beer and weed for both of us. Or maybe you should just go sober for the rest of the year. We always need a designated driver.”

“Shut up, Mark.” Jaemin was getting fed up. The bet was far from over in his head. “This is just a minor setback, nothing to be worried about.”

Jeno chuckled on the other side of him. “God Renjun really is something else. I never thought I would hear someone say that they ‘don’t even want to fuck you’ right to your face. This is doing exactly what we hoped it would to your enlarged ego. The swelling must have gone down a bit, heh?”

Truthfully, the whole thing had been a bit of a blow to Jaemin’s ego; actually a lot of a blow. He knew Renjun didn’t want to be in a relationship, so that made sense to him. What didn’t make sense to Jaemin was the sexual rejection. Renjun clearly wasn’t a prude and was somewhat experienced, so why wouldn’t he fuck him? Jaemin knew he was attractive and there were plenty of rumours going around that he was good in bed. What was Renjun’s problem?

The lunch bell rang, waking Jaemin from his thoughts.

“Hey, you still going to go to the musical, or are you giving up already?” asked Mark as they filed out of the classroom.

Jaemin glared at him. “I’m still going. I still have five weeks left bro, that’s plenty of time.”

“That’s good. I can’t wait to watch you try and enjoy a musical. Donghyuck said they’re selling tickets in the cafeteria today.”

“Wait, are you talking to Donghyuck now?” Jaemin was a little surprised.

Mark shrugged. “I figured it would be good for keeping tabs on how well the bets going; some insider knowledge.”

“So both of you are going to this musical now?” asked Jeno. Jaemin and Mark both nodded in confirmation. “Well now I want to go.”

Mark laughed. “The more the merrier when it comes to teasing Jae. We should get Lucas and Jisung tickets too.”

Jaemin groaned. Watching a high school musical sounded hellish enough without his friends making it ten times worse.

Reaching the cafeteria, the boys noticed a table in one of the corners of the room with a banner that read ‘Come watch Lincoln High School’s Production of Hairspray!’ Renjun and Donghyuck were sitting at the table, waiting for people to come up to them.

Jaemin didn’t appreciate the glare Renjun gave him as he walked up to the table. “I would like a ticket please.”

Renjun sighed. “You’re seriously still coming? I don’t need you pursuing me. It’s a hassle.”

Mark and Jeno burst into laughter behind him, making Jaemin even more annoyed than he already was. “Look when I said I just wanted to get to know you, I meant it. If that means we’re just friends I’m cool with that. Believe it or not, I was trying to be a good friend by telling that gross frat guy to fuck off. And I’m trying to be a good friend now by buying a ticket to your musical.”

Jaemin was satisfied with how shocked Renjun looked at his comments. Apparently he didn’t know how to respond, so Renjun just said to him “they’re five bucks each”. After the exchange was made and Jaemin had his ticket, Renjun pulled him aside leaving Mark and Jeno to buy tickets from Donghyuck.

“Did you want to come over for tutoring tonight? I don’t have dance class since we’re doing late running musical rehearsals all week, so you can come around six-thirty instead of seven.” Renjun sounded much more timid than usual. “I’m sorry if I assumed incorrectly about you.”

“Well you’re not entirely wrong” said Jaemin, not wanting to exclude himself as a romantic candidate altogether. “All I know right now is that I like spending time with you.”

Renjun’s bewildered look didn’t come off his face. Jaemin liked how much he could confuse the other.

Noticing that Mark and Jeno had finished purchasing their tickets, Jaemin said “I’ll see you at six-thirty” and walked away. He smiled to himself as Renjun remained frozen in place.

* * *

“So did I get it right?” asked Jaemin.

Renjun was currently looking over a completed math problem, trying to find errors in Jaemin’s work. His brows were intensely furrowed, making Jaemin very nervous.

Finally he spoke. “This is good.”

“Good?” Jaemin questioned.

“It’s correct” clarified Renjun. “Your working out, your final answer: everything is correct. You’ve improved a lot in a short amount of time.”

Jaemin threw his fist up in the air, “fuck yeah”. He felt his smile get extremely wide; he was genuinely proud of himself. “Guess you were right when you said I wasn’t a complete idiot.”

Renjun scoffed. “You still have a long way to go. If you actually take a test you need to get the majority of the answers right, not just one.” There went Renjun being rude again, not that Jaemin should have expected anything less.

Just as Jaemin was about to retaliate, there was a knock on Renjun’s closed bedroom door.

“Renjun I’m home, can I come in?” asked a female voice.

“Come in mom” he replied.

Renjun’s mom entered the room. She wore bright, flowing clothes with crazy patterns. Her hair was braided around her head with flowers of all different types encapsulated in the hair. This woman, like Renjun’s dad, had quite an alternative air around her.

“Oh hello” she said, “I didn’t realise Renjun had company. I’m Sunny, Renjun’s mom.”

“I’m Jaemin, it’s nice to meet you” he responded.

“This is who I’ve been tutoring” Renjun explained.

“That’s lovely”, Sunny beamed. “You and your father forgot to mention how handsome Jaemin is. He’s exactly your type isn’t he Junnie?”

Renjun’s cheeks exploded with redness as his mother teased him. Jaemin couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the severity of his blush.

“Mom!” Renjun managed to gasp.

“I’m sorry dear but you’re just so easy to tease sometimes.” Sunny laughed again. “Now I actually need your help with something Jun. Brian, my part-timer, quit on me today. Apparently he’s moving to Montreal to be with a girl he met on the internet. Anyway, I was wondering if you can help me out at the shop for the rest of the week from five, just until I find someone to replace Brian.” She looked pleadingly at Renjun.

Renjun shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry mom but I have musical rehearsal till six for the next two days, and then Thursday is performance night. I can only do the Friday like I normally do.”

Sunny sighed. “That’s okay; I’ll just work late to get everything done.”

Jaemin was hit with an idea, another way to make him more appealing to Renjun. “I can help.”

Renjun and Sunny both stared at him, obviously not expecting the offer. “Really Jaemin? Because that would be amazing.” Sunny said.

“I mean, I’ve been meaning to get a part-time job anyway.” Jaemin said. He had truthfully been meaning to start work, particularly since Renjun’s tutoring bill was starting to pile up. “Let’s say that if you like how I do this week then you’ll hire me for good?” Jaemin offered.

Sunny smiled. “Of course. I have a feeling you’ll do well with the flowers, you seem like the gentle type.”

Jaemin gave a small smile. No one had referred to him as gentle before, but he liked it.

“Alright” said Sunny as she smacked her hands together with glee. “I’ll see you at the shop tomorrow at five. Renjun can give you the address.”

“Oh wait, I might not be able to make it on Thursday because I’m going to see Renjun’s musical.” Jaemin remembered.

Sunny was surprised. “You’re coming too? It starts at eight so we’ll be done with work by then. Chen and I can even give you a lift to the school.”

“Oh okay. Sounds good.” said Jaemin. He looked at Renjun who had been oddly silent throughout the conversation. He had a look on his face that was a mix of confusion and complete horror. It made Jaemin smile.

Sunny had clearly noticed Renjun’s expression as well and took that as a cue to leave. “Have fun you two” she said as she walked out the door.

Jaemin gave Renjun a few more moments of silence to collect his thoughts. He was about to check if Renjun was still alive when the boy suddenly said, “you’re going to the musical with my parents”.

Jaemin grinned at him. “I know, isn’t it fantastic?”

Renjun just groaned and plonked his head onto the desk. Jaemin just chuckled. He could hear Renjun mumbling something but couldn’t understand it due to his face being in a desk.

“What was that?” he asked Renjun.

Renjun turned his face to him. “Thanks for helping my mom out” he said.

Jaemin was taken aback by the display of kindness. “It’s cool, I like flowers anyway.”

“You like flowers?” Renjun asked, eyebrows raised.

“Yeah I actually do” admitted Jaemin.

It was strange how truthful Jaemin was with Renjun, despite their whole relationship being built on a lie.

* * *

When Jaemin stepped into the Moody Moon Florist at 4:59pm the next day, nothing could have prepared him for the sight he saw. It was unlike any place he had ever seen. Thick, twisting vines grew up the walls to the ceiling. Ferns hung from the ceiling in hanging pots; spilling over the sides of the pots and tickling Jaemin’s cheeks as he walked by. The store was filled with rows and rows of bouquets of roses, tulips, peonies, hydrangeas, buttercups and a hundred other flowers he didn’t know the names of yet. A fine mist was sprayed from ceiling sprinklers every thirty seconds, refreshing Jaemin and the flowers. The dots of water floating in the air refracted the sunlight coming in through the large windows, sprinkling rainbow drops over everything.

As Jaemin was taking everything in, he was interrupted by Renjun’s mother as she came out from the back. “Ah Jaemin, you’re here.”

“Hello Sunny” Jaemin greeted her. “I really like your store.”

Sunny beamed at him. “Well it is my heart and soul; I take good care of it. Come, let me show you around.”

Once Sunny had finished giving Jaemin the grand tour, the next hours were filled with pleasant work. After cleaning the shop entirely: sweeping and mopping the floors, wiping the flower stands and watering the ferns; Jaemin and Sunny began to prepare the store for the next day. This mainly consisted of preparing bouquets. Jaemin was tasked with preparing the mono-bouquets, or as he learned, the bouquets with only one type of flower in them. All he had to do was trim and tidy the stems, place the correct amount of flowers on different coloured parchment then wrap them up into a neat and simple arrangement. His first few tries at wrapping were a little to be desired, but by the forth try he was doing a decent job.

Sunny left the more complex floral arrangements for her to do. Jaemin couldn’t help but watch in awe as she put together bouquet after bouquet of unique and beautiful combinations. Indeed she was very good at what she did.

Jaemin found out very quickly that Sunny liked to chat as she worked. They talked about lots of things; mostly inconsequential things like how nice the weather had been and what Jaemin liked about school. Every time he talked, Jaemin felt that Sunny was listening, and she would give him smiles of recognition and encouragement. Jaemin felt soothed by Sunny’s presence; it felt like such a stark contrast to his own parents.

“So Jaemin” Sunny continued their conversation, “What do you plan to do with yourself once you’ve graduated?”

“Well it’s pretty likely I’m going to get a college football scholarship from at least a few places, so if that happens I’m going to go to college.” Jaemin said as he de-thorned a rose stem.

“And what will you study?” she asked.

Jaemin stopped what he was doing. “Umm I don’t know, I guess I’ll just see which classes I like and declare a major a bit later.” He knew his answer was lame, but he honestly didn’t have anything better.

“Well my dear, why go to college at all if you don’t know what to do there?” Sunny said airily as she tied a chunky ribbon around a boxed bouquet.

Jaemin stared at her. Never in his life had he heard an adult suggest to him not to go to college. All his parents had been talking about with him since he entered middle school was playing college football. “But I need to go to college” was all Jaemin could blurt out.

Sunny gave a breathy chuckle. “Oh honey, college can be a great place to be if you want a career that demands you go to one. But is that you? The things you told me that you liked most about high school were football, woodwork and the one time you did ceramics in art class. Clearly you enjoy doing things with your hands and that is not something you’ll experience in college my dear. Not if you actually want a degree that’s worth all that money.”

Jaemin’s head was spinning a little. He had never questioned the idea of going to college, and Renjun’s mum was freaking him out with these new ideas. Worst of all, what she was saying seemed logical to Jaemin.

Wanting to stop talking about himself, Jaemin asked “What does Renjun want to do at college?”

“Forensic science” Sunny replied with a small smile. “He’ll tell you it’s because he can use his cleverness to benefit humanity, but really it’s because he’s loved cop shows ever since he was young.”

Jaemin laughed at that. “I thought he’d want to do something drama or dance or music related.”

Sunny shook her head. “Renjun will always do those things, he wouldn’t be Renjun without them, but I think he prefers to have them as hobbies. He feels no pressure when he performs; he just does it for fun.”

“Must be nice” Jaemin mused.

“What are your feelings towards Renjun?” Sunny asked out of nowhere, causing Jaemin to accidentally snip the head off a tulip.

“Umm, I err” Jaemin stuttered as he collected himself. “I like spending time with him. I want to be his friend.”

“Nothing more?” she continued to question.

Jaemin took a deep breath. “I’m not sure. I don’t know if I’m into guys that way.”

“Ah” Sunny nodded. “Well Renjun will certainly give you plenty of time to figure it out. That boy’s overly cautious when it comes to love. Whoever captures his heart will need to have earnt his trust fully; something he does not give out easily.” She stared wistfully at her newly finished bouquet.

Jaemin coughed and looked up at Sunny. “Do you know why he’s so against being in a relationship?”

She met Jaemin’s gaze. “Renjun devotes himself completely to the important things in his life. That’s why he does so much after school. I think he’s waiting for the right person who he can give everything to and have them reciprocate in kind.”

Jaemin looked back down at his work. The more he learnt about Renjun, the more his actions made sense. Renjun was this big puzzle that he was slowly working towards completing. He was also continuously daunted by his bet with Mark, and how hard of a task it actually was. Renjun’s love was serious and real, not like the love that was expressed to him by high school girls. He wasn’t sure if it was right to mess with it.

“Looks like you’re all finished up my dear.” Sunny’s voice cut through Jaemin’s thoughts. He looked down at his workbench to see that he had no loose flowers left. “Come help me bring everything to the cool-room and we can get out of here” Sunny said cheerily.

As Jaemin left the shop that day and said goodbye to Sunny, he had a smile on his face and a pit in his stomach. He needed to think some things over.

* * *

“Are you almost done Jaemin?” Sunny asked.

It was Thursday night and Jaemin was back at the Moody Moon Florist with Renjun’s mum. They were both finishing up their final bouquets for the next day.

“I’m done” said Jaemin as he wrapped his final bouquet; his workbench clear.

“Me too” said Sunny, collecting the stray discarded flowers on her workbench. “Why don’t you try making a bouquet out of these?” she offered. “You can give it to Renjun tonight to congratulate him on his performance.” She gestured for him to come over to her.

Jaemin pursed his lips. He wasn’t confident that he could make something beautiful that Renjun would like. “But I don’t know how to do it” argued Jaemin softly as he walked over to Sunny.

She smiled warmly at him. “You don’t need any formal training for this, honey. You just need a sincere heart and an eye for colour; both of which you have. Plus something tells me Renjun would be happy with whatever you give him.”

“Really?” Jaemin perked up at that. “Did he say something?”

Sunny shook her head, and then winked at him. “A mother never tells.”

Jaemin sighed at her lack of cooperation and stared at the table in front of him, loose flowers scattered around. “Okay, I’ll give it a go.”

As Jaemin started to work, he felt his confidence growing. He picked up flower after flower from the bench, arranging them in a vase to help see how the end product would look. Jaemin chose the beautiful burnt-orange roses left on the table to centre his piece around, and as he went he added baby’s breath, lavender and a few other flowers and leaves. When he was done, he looked over to Sunny for her approval before he wrapped it up.

She leaned over the table and studied Jaemin’s bouquet carefully. To him, it seemed like it had been an hour before she said anything. “There are some bold choices in here.”

Jaemin gulped. She didn’t like it.

Seeing the worry on his face, Sunny laughed. “Oh Jaemin, it’s beautiful. You did a great job. This bouquet has an almost masculine edge to it, which I’m not sure how you achieved that but I’m sure Renjun will appreciate it. You certainly have a knack for this sort of work.”

Jaemin was shocked but unbelievably happy. This was the first time he’d felt like he’d achieved something outside of football. “I really did a good job?” he asked Sunny.

“Yes dear, it really is stunning. Maybe you should help me out with the arrangements next week?” Sunny suggested.

Jaemin ginned. “I’d like that.”

“Hello. I’m here, Sunny.” They heard someone calling from inside the store.

“Oh that will be Chen” explained Sunny. “We’re in the back” she yelled out to him. “Wrap that bouquet up so we can get going. We wouldn’t want to be late” she said to Jaemin.

“Ah there you are” said Chen as he walked into the room. He walked straight to Sunny, giving her a smile and a peck on the lips. He turned to Jaemin and asked “Ready to go?”

“Almost” said Jaemin as he wrapped up the bouquet. “Can we please stop and get some food on the way? I don’t think there’ll be much to eat at the school.”

Chen smiled and wrapped his arms around Sunny. “I’ve got burgers and fries waiting for you both in the car, if that’s alright with you Jaemin?”

Jaemin was taken aback by the consideration. “Y-Yeah, that’s great. Thank you.”

“Alright, let’s get out of here.” Chen declared, and the group left the shop. On the car ride to the school, Jaemin couldn’t stop thinking about how kind Renjun’s parents were to him, and how supportive Sunny was of his feelings towards Renjun.

His fake feelings.

Was he getting in way too deep? He would be hurting Sunny too as well as Renjun when this whole bet was finished. Was that a problem?

Jaemin was asking himself a whole lot of questions he didn’t want to answer.

* * *

“Well that was, um, interesting” said Mark.

Jaemin and his friends were standing outside the school hall where they had just finished watching the musical. Renjun’s parents had already gone backstage to congratulate him, but his friends had pulled him aside before he could go with them.

“It wasn’t that bad” Jaemin replied to Mark. “The singing was good.”

“Plus it was really funny seeing Amber Morton dancing in a fat-suit” Jeno added, snickering.

Mark laughed with Jeno and turned his attention back to Jaemin. “So what’s your plan now, head backstage and sweep him off his feet with your big bouquet of tulips?”

Jaemin scoffed. “They’re roses dickhead, and I have it on good authority that this is a great gift for him.”

Jisung hummed. “Getting the mom on-side was smart. You sure are one clever bastard Na Jaemin.”

“But are you sure it isn’t too much?” Lucas asked. “You don’t want him to freak out like last time.”

Jaemin breathed deeply. “Just leave me alone and let me fucking do this. I’ll see you later.”

“Okay okay. We’ll wait out here until you’re ready to go.” Mark conceded.

Jaemin marched around the side of the hall to the backstage door. It was open so parents and friends could come in and congratulate the performers. Jaemin stepped inside to see a flurry of people changing out of their costumes, wiping makeup off their faces and packing up their belongings. Jaemin noticed Renjun and his parents in a far corner, along with Donghyuck, Jungwoo and Chenle. He managed to weave his way through the crowd to them.

“Um Renjun” Jaemin said, getting Renjun’s attention. Renjun looked up at him and their eyes met. Renjun still had his stage makeup on; his eyes and lips extra defined.

“You were great tonight.” He held up the bouquet he had made. “Congrats on your performance.” In the background he saw Sunny smiling widely then whispering in Chen’s ear.

Renjun looked surprised but pleased with the gift. He took it from Jaemin’s hands and inspected it. “Mom did you make this?” he asked, head tilted in confusion.

“Actually honey, that’s Jaemin’s work” explained Sunny.

“Oh” said Renjun, surprised again. His eyes met Jaemin’s once more and he smiled at him. “Thanks Jaem, it’s beautiful.” Then it was Jaemin’s turn to be surprised.

Renjun placed his arms around his neck and leaned in to him, pressing their bodies together.

Renjun just hugged him.

After a moment of shock, Jaemin wrapped his arms around Renjun’s tiny waist and held him. Renjun smelled like sweat and hairspray, but Jaemin wasn’t bothered. He was ecstatic that Renjun was touching him. Things were finally progressing further. A smile grew on Jaemin’s face and he couldn’t contain it. Renjun noticed the goofy grin when he let go and pulled away, it made him blush a little.

Jaemin coughed. “Um, you guys were great as well” he said to the other boys. “Mark, Jeno, Lucas and Jisung are outside if you want to say hello. They want to congratulate you as well.”

“Really?” questioned Chenle.

“I told you they bought tickets” exclaimed Donghyuck.

“Yeah but I didn’t think that they’d actually come” said Chenle back to him.

“Just get your stuff so we can leave and say hello” demanded Jungwoo.

The boys finished wiping off their makeup and grabbed their things. Once outside, Jaemin led everyone to the waiting footballers. Mark, Jeno, Lucas and Jisung gave their congratulations for the performance. Jaemin couldn’t help but notice the subtle looks between Mark and Donghyuck, and the not-so-subtle stares between Lucas and Jungwoo.

Things were getting weirder by the day.

“So are we celebrating?” asked Mark. “I know a bar near here that doesn’t check I.D. and…” Mark stopped talking and gulped when he finally noticed Renjun’s parents. “I mean I know a great ice cream place near here.”

Chen laughed at Mark heartily. “We distil our own absinthe at home. If you want to celebrate you can have some of that.”

The footballers’ jaws dropped simultaneously. Jaemin felt like he shouldn’t be surprised by Renjun’s parents anymore, yet he still was.

Before anyone could accept or reject Chen’s offer, Renjun squashed the idea. “No way, I’m too beat to party. I just want to sleep.” He yawned afterwards, almost as if to prove his point.

“You said it” agreed Chenle. “Let’s get out of here. Hyuck, Woo, you still need a lift?”

Donghyuck nodded but before Jungwoo could respond, Lucas interjected “I can give you a lift home Jungwoo.” Lucas stared at Jungwoo, ignoring the shocked expressions on his friends’ faces.

“Sure” accepted Jungwoo, a sultry smile on his face.

“Whatever” said Chenle, clearly not in the mood to probe any deeper.

“Jaemin honey, are you getting a lift with us back to your house?” Sunny asked as she gently touched his shoulder, gaining his attention back away from Lucas and Jungwoo’s eye-fucking.

“Yes, thanks” he said, feeling comforted by her touch. A car ride with Renjun would be the icing on the cake for tonight.

Everyone made their way to the parking lot and into their respective cars; waving goodbye and giving final congratulations to the boys for their performance. Jaemin and Renjun sat side by side in the backseat of Chen’s car. Jaemin couldn’t stop staring at Renjun who looked so cute and tired. His eyelids were fluttering open and shut and his head kept drooping down towards his chest. He was still clutching the bouquet Jaemin had made him, which made him feel especially proud.

“Renjun, do you want to sleep on my shoulder?” he asked boldly. If Renjun had been even slightly more energetic, Jaemin was sure he would have said no. However that night Renjun simply nodded, closed his eyes and slumped his body into Jaemin’s side. Jaemin wasn’t expecting the easy concession and was caught off-guard by the sudden contact. When he looked down at Renjun’s sleepy face on his shoulder, he couldn’t help but notice how close their lips were to each other’s. 

“Thanks for the bouquet” Renjun mumbled against him. “I didn’t know you were the creative type.”

Jaemin chuckled, still looking down at Renjun. “Well there’s lots of this you still don’t know about me.”

Renjun nodded his head against his chest. “You’re certainly full of surprises.” Jaemin’s heart thumped even louder as Renjun snuggled into his chest. He had seen Renjun be touchy with his friends before, so it didn’t necessarily mean anything, but he couldn’t stop the excitement that bubbled up within him.

“So you really liked the musical?” Renjun asked, eyes still shut.

Jaemin decided to be honest. “I’m not sure if musicals are my thing, but you were fantastic. I had no idea your voice was so good.”

Renjun cheeks turned a shade of pink. “I’m not that good.”

Jaemin shook his head. “No you are, Renjun. You were amazing on that stage tonight. It took my breath away.” Jaemin knew he was saying all the right things to get Renjun to fall for him. He knew that this musical was so important to Renjun, and that complimenting the other boy would make him feel very happy.

Jaemin also knew deep down that he wasn’t making a single thing up when he told Renjun how amazing he was.

He looked back down at Renjun and realised that in the midst of his thoughts the boy had fallen asleep and was now snoozing against his chest.

Cute.

_Fuck._


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up that there is smut in this chapter.

_And no I don’t want your sympathy, all this love is suffocating_

It was the middle of the week after the musical, and Renjun and his friends were at their usual cafeteria table eating lunch and talking shit. The group had been pretty excited the last few days with the successful completion of the musical and Jungwoo’s incredible tales of car sex with Lucas. Renjun was ready for things to get back to normal for a bit.

“Hey do we all want to go out tonight?” offered up Chenle. “There’s a new fro-yo place that just opened on Main St.”

“I can’t” Renjun rejected. “I have tutoring with Jaemin tonight.” Renjun liked fro-yo but not as much as he liked money. Plus hanging out with Jaemin wasn’t all bad. Not that he’d ever let his friends know.

“How’s it going with Jaemin?” inquired Donghyuck as he stole a fry off Jungwoo. “Is he actually learning anything or does he just stare at you the whole time?”

Renjun groaned. He was getting really sick of this whole ‘Na Jaemin definitely has a crush on you and we won’t stop harassing you about it’ thing. “Guys please stop with this shit. And he is actually learning stuff from me. He’s improved a lot.”

Jungwoo smirked. “So are we talking about math or something else?”

Unfortunately the years of dance training Jungwoo had under his belt made him quick enough to dodge the apple core that Renjun lobbed at his head.

“So Woo, Hyuck, fro-yo tonight?” Chenle asked, completely ignoring what just happened.

Jungwoo shook his head. “Sorry babe but I have prior engagements.”

“Is it Lucas again or just another random from the basketball team?” Renjun sassed at him.

“Wow jealous much?” Jungwoo wasn’t taking any crap. “You really need to deal with your insecurities about relationships so you can stop giving people shit whenever they want to enjoy themselves.”

Renjun scoffed. “I’m not insecure about me being in a relationship. I just don’t want one.”

“Bullshit” Jungwoo countered. “You’ve met plenty of nice available gay men at all those fucking extra-curriculars you do but you won’t give them a time of day. Even Jaemin who’s helping your mom out at her shop because he’s so into you; you won’t even entertain the idea of liking him. So what’s the deal Renjun because you would think you’d have found someone by now who you want to do more with than just fuck.”

Renjun could not do anything else but sit in place for a few seconds, staring back at Jungwoo. Renjun had never delved too deeply into why he was so against himself being in relationship – why he chalked them up to all being fake. He didn’t want to think about if Jungwoo was right and what that would mean.

“Well maybe you should feel more insecure about falling for a guy who’s never going to come out of the closet and admit to being with you.” Renjun felt himself regret it as soon as he said it. Worst of all he _saw_ it hurt Jungwoo’s feelings, the pain apparent all over his face. Jungwoo had never come out and said that he had a crush on Lucas, but the boys all knew that he did. And they all knew how much it sucked to want to be with someone who wanted to keep everything a secret.

“Renjun, that was mean” Donghyuck began to chastise him.

He sighed. “I know Hyuck. Jungwoo, I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Jungwoo nodded softly, looking down at the table. “I know you are, and I know you’re right about Lucas too. I just wanted to live in this fantasy a bit longer, you know?”

Renjun reached over the table to grasp one of Jungwoo’s hands. “I’m not saying you should stop seeing him. I just don’t want you to get hurt, okay?”

Jungwoo finally looked Renjun in the eyes, and Renjun’s heart felt another pang as he realised Jungwoo was holding back tears. “Maybe, Jun, you should let yourself get hurt for once.”

* * *

“You alright tonight? You seem a little distracted?”

Renjun was torn from his thoughts by a very annoyed-looking Jaemin; clearly grumpy that Renjun wasn’t giving him his full attention.

“Sorry” he apologised. “I was just thinking about something Jungwoo said to me earlier today. Anyway, let me look at your work.”

As Renjun grabbed Jaemin’s math book and his red pen, he wanted to steer the conversation in a different direction. “How was work today?”

Since Jaemin had taken on the casual job at the florist, he had become as busy as Renjun. They had to schedule their tutoring time to be even later at night to accommodate it. This week had seen Jaemin finishing work every night with Sunny, then being driven by her to Renjun’s house where they would all eat dinner together before the two boys went upstairs to do their maths work (or any other homework that was more imperative). Renjun was well aware of how Jaemin was slotting himself more and more into his life, and had made sure to keep somewhat of a distance. Particularly since the embarrassing cuddling incident on the night of the musical.

“It was great” Jaemin said as he leant back further into his chair. “Sunny let me make some bouquets for a specialised order. She said I excel at creating bouquets with a ‘masculine beauty’. How dope is that?”

Renjun laughed at him. “Sounds pretty dope” he teased.

“Shut up.” Jaemin shoved Renjun’s shoulder. “Now are you going to tell me what Jungwoo said?”

“You made a mistake in the fifth line” Renjun said, ignoring Jaemin. “You didn’t carry over properly.”

Jaemin cracked a cheeky smile. “Okay I’ll take that as a ‘no’.” Renjun squealed in surprise as Jaemin grabbed the arms of his desk chair and rolled the chair closer to him. Jaemin moved his face closer to Renjun’s, trying to get the boy to look him in the eyes. When Renjun finally relented, Jaemin said “You don’t have to be scared Renjun. You can tell me anything.”

_You don’t have to be scared._

But Renjun did feel scared. He felt very scared. And it wasn’t something he wanted to deal with right now.

Renjun cleared his throat and pushed his chair away from Jaemin. “You should fix up that mistake” he said, pointing to the book on the desk.

Jaemin did as he was told, allowing Renjun some time for the spinning in his head to subside.

“Did you know I have a game on Saturday?” asked Jaemin as he was doing his work.

Renjun hummed a ‘yes’ as he looked at some homework of his own.

“Well it’s an important one.” Jaemin continued. “It’s the team we lost the grand finale to last year. Hopefully this game will be a redemption of sorts.”

Renjun hummed again, letting Jaemin know he was still listening.

“I want you to be there.”

Renjun looked up at that, only to find Jaemin’s super-serious face staring him down. Renjun scoffed, “You can’t be serious. Can you imagine me at a football game?”

“Why not?” argued Jaemin. “I went to your musical and that cost me money. It won’t cost you anything to sit in a grandstand and cheer my name a few times.”

“You want me to cheer for you too?” Renjun whined.

“Yes, I do” said Jaemin, still very serious. “And I’ll consider you a bad friend if you don’t.”

Renjun tossed his head back. “Ugh fine! I’ll go.”

When Renjun finally lowered his gaze back to Jaemin’s face, he could feel himself blushing at the huge grin the other boy was giving him.

* * *

“Remind me why we’re at school on a Saturday, watching a football game of all things?”

Chenle was grumpy again, and Renjun couldn’t blame him. Renjun had managed to drag Chenle, Jungwoo and Donghyuck along with him to Jaemin’s game (not that the last two needed much convincing). The day was cold and dreary, and they were at school on a weekend. And they were watching sport: not a cool sport like figure-skating or gymnastics, a _team_ sport. Renjun was beginning to forget why he agreed to this.

“It’s good to show school spirit sometimes” Donghyuck reasoned with Chenle. The boy was currently wrapped up in a giant scarf to thwart the cold, which made him look both stupid and adorable.

“I think they have enough people here to show school spirit without us around.” Chenle countered, gesturing to the packed grandstand they were in. Renjun had been really surprised at the amount of people that had come to watch the game; all wearing school colours and waving banners. They made the other boys stick out even more than usual.

“Bitch, you’re just mad you didn’t get a personal invitation like the rest of us.” Jungwoo was in full sass-mode as per usual.

It was a true-ish statement. Jaemin had invited Renjun first, but throughout the week during one of their meet-ups Lucas had asked Jungwoo to come watch the game. Mark hadn’t necessarily asked Donghyuck to come, but he had messaged him asking him if he was going. When Donghyuck replied that he was, apparently Mark had replied ‘cool’ with the okay-sign emoji and that counted as an invitation in Donghyuck’s books.

“Why did I even come if this is how I’m going to be treated?” Chenle gasped in fake resentment.

“Because you didn’t want to be the loser who was home alone on a Saturday.” Renjun reminded him.

Before Chenle could respond, the marching band started playing, and the cheerleaders lined up by the entrance and shook their pom poms vigorously in the air. The football team ran out onto the field, led by Jaemin. The boys jumped around for a bit with the cheerleaders, trying to hype up the crowd. Eventually Jaemin’s eyes found Renjun in the crowd and he began to wave excitedly. Renjun reciprocated with a small wave, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself.

Soon enough the opposing team ran out onto the field and the players prepared to start the game. Despite all Jaemin’s talk about how important this game was, Renjun thought he looked very confident.

When the referee blew his whistle and the game started, Renjun became completely lost. After a few minutes of trying to figure out what was going on, he turned to his friends.

“Hey can someone explain to me what the fuck is happening?”

“No clue” replied Donghyuck beside him. “But Mark has the ball so that must be a good thing.”

As soon as Donghyuck stopped talking, Mark was tackled to the ground by a particularly burly opposing player. Donghyuck gasped and grabbed Renjun’s hand. “Do you think he’s alright?”

Mark slowly got up from the ground, dusting himself off. “I think he’s fine” assured Renjun.

“Are they even allowed to do that?” Donghyuck asked Renjun, looking extremely concerned.

Chenle, who had apparently had enough of their ridiculous conversation, leant over Jungwoo towards the other boys. “Have you guys seriously never even watched a game of football before?” The disbelief was clear in his voice.

Renjun just shrugged. “Sports are yucky.”

Chenle blinked slowly few times, trying to collect himself, before shaking his head incredulously. “Listen, all you need to know if that our team is trying to get the ball to the left end of the field and the other team is trying to get the ball to the right end of the field. The teams will try to stop each other by tackling the player with the ball and trying to get the ball off them. Easy, right?”

Chenle waited a few seconds for the information to sink in, only to have Donghyuck’s and Renjun’s wide eyes still staring back at him. Chenle just sat back up in his seat, pinching the bridge of his nose in between his fingers. “I’m friends with a bunch of idiots” he groaned.

Jungwoo patted his thigh sympathetically. “Don’t worry guys; just cheer when the player you like gets the ball. That’s what I’m doing for Lucas.”

As if on cue Lucas caught the ball and began sprinting down the field, causing Jungwoo and the rest of the crowd to yell out in excitement. It seemed for a second that he would make it to the end until two players from the opposing team rapidly started to approach him. Before they could reach him, Lucas desperately threw the ball to his nearest teammate: Jaemin.

Jaemin lunged for the ball and managed to grasp it between his fingertips. Before Renjun could blink, Jaemin was running full pelt down to the end of the field with the ball. Renjun had always thought that it was odd that Jaemin was the football team captain since he was of a slimmer build. However as Renjun saw him in action he realised why. Player after player tried to catch and tackle Jaemin to no avail. Jaemin’s speed and agility were like nothing Renjun had ever seen.

He was truly very talented.

As Jaemin ran past the goal line the entire grandstand, including Renjun, screamed out in joy as the referee raised his arms up and blew his whistle for the touchdown. The team swarmed around Jaemin, patting his back for the awesome play.

“Wow, Jaemin’s pretty good” yelled Chenle over the crowd.

“Yeah” was all Renjun could respond with. He couldn’t deny that Jaemin looked good out on the field. That his movements conjured up feelings that Renjun had not had for a long time.

Renjun’s mind went into denial overdrive for the rest of the game, assuring himself that Jaemin was not becoming more and more attractive with each display of effortless talent. This mechanism was particularly needed during half-time when Jaemin had the audacity remove his helmet and shirt and dump an entire bottle of water all over his half-naked body. Renjun was lucky that the startled moan that left his lips was drowned out by the appreciative screams of every woman in the grandstand.

Why did Na Jaemin have to have _abs_? Was the universe torturing him?

As Jaemin brushed his wet bangs away from his face he looked into the crowd to find Renjun, giving him a cute wink and smile when they made eye contact.

Yes, the universe was definitely torturing him.

When the game finally finished with Lincoln High winning, the entire grandstand rose to their feet to cheer for the team. The footballers looked extremely happy with the result, and hoisted Jaemin up into the air to celebrate. The crowd began chanting Jaemin’s name over and over as the team carried him around.

Renjun almost felt like he was having an out of body experience in that moment. He stood quietly, observing the scene around him. People moved in slow motion, sounds were muted. Things felt clear and murky at the same time.

He looked to Jaemin; sitting on the shoulders of his friends with a huge grin on his face while people chanted his name. He obviously enjoyed this: being talented, being a star, being popular. Jaemin had the perfect high school life.

So where the fuck did Renjun fit into all that?

He was freaking out. This thing he had with Jaemin, whatever it was, wasn’t normal. He didn’t know where he stood with Jaemin or why Jaemin was bothering to get to know him. From the moment Jaemin had asked Renjun to be his tutor it seemed as if the whole world had been turned upside down, and Renjun just wanted to make sense of all this.

“Hey, are you okay?” asked a concerned-looking Donghyuck. “You’re breathing’s really heavy.”

Renjun finally noticed he was hyperventilating and did his best to calm himself, but he couldn’t relieve the uneasiness he felt from seeing Jaemin in his element. “Can we get out of here?” he asked his friends shakily.

“What? No.” answered Jungwoo with an annoyed tone. “We should congratulate them on their win.”

“Renjun what’s wrong?” asked Donghyuck, searching Renjun’s eyes for a clue.

“Nothing. I just have to leave.” Renjun basically yelled at his friends as he got up out of his seat and made his way to the stairs. He ignored the calls of his friends as he ran down the stairs and into the exit corridor.

He didn’t notice that Jaemin saw exactly what was going on. He didn’t notice that Jaemin left the field and sprinted after him. He didn’t notice till Jaemin caught up to him.

“Why are you leaving, Renjun?”

Renjun froze in his tracks. The last thing he needed right now was to talk to Jaemin.

“I’ve got homework to do.” He answered curtly, not even turning around to face him. “I watched your game. I did as I promised.”

Jaemin stepped in front of him and tilted his chin up gently with his hand. “Please stay. We can celebrate together.” Jaemin gave one of his classic big smiles.

“No.” Renjun smacked Jaemin’s hand away. “I need to get out of here.” He pushed past Jaemin and headed for the exit once more.

“Stop running away from me, Jun.” Jaemin caught up to him again, standing behind him. Jaemin’s deep breaths tickling the top of his head. “Please.”

_Stop running away._

Renjun shook his head. “No, no, no. This whole thing doesn’t make any sense!” he cried out. “Last time I checked the _straight_ captain of the football team doesn’t go after a drama nerd. I mean, you looked so fucking picturesque out there with everyone chanting your name and every cheerleader pining after you. Where do I fit into that equation? You’ve somehow concocted this perfect high school existence for yourself and you want me to come ruin it for you? What’s the deal?”

Jaemin gulped at the words. Renjun clearly knew something was up, and he was giving Jaemin the perfect opportunity to come clean. For weeks Jaemin had been struggling with the morality of what he was doing and how much it would hurt Renjun when the bet came to light. Surely it would be better to tell him now before it got any worse.

But then Renjun would hate him. Then Renjun wouldn’t want to see him anymore. Jaemin couldn’t let that happen, not yet at least.

“You do fit into my life, Renjun.” He said softly into the back of Renjun’s neck, causing the boy to shudder. “You’re the only one who sees past all that stuff. You don’t see me as the captain of the football team, you just see me as Jaemin: the guy who is bad at math and likes to make bouquets. The guy who doesn’t want to go to college but is too fucking afraid to tell anyone. Sometimes you say shit about me that I didn’t even realise about myself, but it’s all true.”

Jaemin grabbed Renjun’s shoulders and turned him around so that they were facing each other. “I don’t care that jocks don’t go after drama nerds. I don’t care that I’m not supposed to like boys. I just care about you.”

Renjun’s expression softened at his words, but the worried crease in between his brows didn’t go away. “Jaemin, I just…” he began to argue, but Jaemin didn’t want to hear any more of his excuses.

So he kissed him.

Renjun gasped in surprise as Jaemin brought his lips down to meet his; hand on the back of Renjun’s neck to hold him in place. After the initial second of shock, Jaemin was pleased to feel Renjun’s lips begin to move with his own. Feeling bold (and needy), Jaemin walked Renjun backwards, pressing him up against the wall of the corridor and deepening the kiss. Renjun let out a high moan when Jaemin pushed his tongue into his mouth, and Jaemin felt his knees almost buckle at the sound.

Everything was Renjun in this moment. All his senses were filled with the boy. Renjun felt unbearably hot to touch, searing his skin so deliciously that Jaemin could only move closer. His head was filled with the scent of Renjun: a mix of coconut and vanilla that Jaemin had become so used to smelling. The sounds of Renjun’s quick breaths and subtle moans were perfection to Jaemin’s ears. The taste of Renjun on his tongue was sweet and addicting.

Jaemin finally broke the kiss, pushing himself back slightly to look at the other boy. Renjun’s eyes were half-lidded and his cheeks were tinted pink. He breathed heavily out of beautiful lips that had become swollen and redder with the force of Jaemin’s kiss.

Jaemin could barely take it all in. Kissing Renjun was all too much, yet not enough.

Jaemin couldn’t help himself. He swooped back in for another kiss, grunting in pleasure as Renjun made another delicious moan. He lifted Renjun’s shirt and began to trail his hands up the boy’s sides, the subtle touches causing Renjun to cling to him even harder. For once in his life, Jaemin didn’t just care about his own pleasure. All he wanted was for Renjun to feel good; for him to be the one that made Renjun feel good. Jaemin inched his hands up more and more until his thumbs brushed gently over Renjun’s nipples. Renjun gasped into Jaemin’s mouth at the contact and arched his back a little. Jaemin was immediately taken aback by how sensitive Renjun was at his gentle touch. He was also taken aback by how turned on it made him.

Jaemin groaned again, absorbing Renjun’s reactions as he played with his nipples again and again. He broke the kiss and began to attack Renjun’s neck, sucking and biting the beautiful skin just harshly enough that Renjun’s moans became constant. Having Renjun fall apart beneath him was so intoxicating that Jaemin felt like he could do this forever.

“Jaemin” Renjun barely managed to croak out between moans. “Someone could see.”

“Don’t care.” Jaemin mumbled against his neck. He proceeded to take Renjun’s earlobe between his teeth and suck gently, making the boy inhale sharply.

“You won’t want people finding out this way.” Renjun struggled to say.

Jaemin stopped what he was doing, dropping his head down to Renjun’s shoulder. Renjun was right. He wasn’t even sure how he felt about everything yet and didn’t want to answer any questions he didn’t know the answer to.

“You should go back to the field. You deserve to celebrate.” Renjun said gently.

“Come back to the grandstand” Jaemin pleaded. “Celebrate with me.”

Renjun gave him a small smile and nodded. Not being able to resist, Jaemin leant in and gave him a cute peck on the lips. His heart did a little flip when Renjun giggled at the contact.

“Come on” Jaemin said as he grabbed Renjun’s hand and pulled him along the corridor back to the field. The two boys went their separate ways when Renjun reached the stairs. As he climbed them back up to his friends he could feel the stupid grin that was on his face, and did his best to look ordinary before he reached them.

The boys stared at him with wide smiles as he sat back down next to Donghyuck.

“So, how’d things go with Jaemin?” Donghyuck asked, clearly attempting to be nonchalant.

“What do you mean?” Renjun questioned, also attempting to be nonchalant.

All his friends laughed at him. “We saw him go after you.” Chenle explained.

“Nothing happened.” Renjun tried his best to convince them.

Jungwoo raised his eyebrows at that. “Oh yeah? Tell that to your neck.”

Renjun immediately placed a hand over his neck where Jaemin had been kissing him. Of course he had left marks; Renjun was an idiot not to have thought about it.

“Don’t worry, Jun. We’re happy for you.” Donghyuck said as he took his giant scarf off and wrapped it around Renjun’s neck.

“Really?” asked Renjun, still unsure if he had made the right decision.

“Really” confirmed Jungwoo. “It’s about time you started experiencing human emotions.”

Ignoring Jungwoo’s sass, Renjun snuggled into Donghyuck’s scarf and admitted to himself what he had been trying to deny all week.

He had fallen for Na Jaemin.

* * *

“So what happened with Renjun?”

Jaemin and Jeno were in Mark’s kitchen getting some beers. After all the excitement of winning the game, Mark had declared that would have a party at his place despite the fact that his parents were only away till Sunday morning. Jaemin knew there was no way they would get the place cleaned up in time, but he didn’t have the heart to burst Mark’s bubble. Also he was curious about how long he would be grounded for this time.

“Not a lot. I just convinced him to stay for the after-game celebrations.” Jaemin replied as he took a sip of beer. He hadn’t told any of his friends about the kiss. Only Jeno had noticed that he ran off the field because Renjun had left; and Jaemin wanted to keep it to himself for now.

Jeno looked sceptical. “Huh, alright. Is he coming tonight?”

“He said he would.” Renjun hadn’t agreed readily to come to the party; citing that Chenle would probably murder him if he ruined his _entire_ Saturday. Jaemin was one step away from begging before Renjun finally relented. “I think Jungwoo, Donghyuck and Chenle are coming too.”

Jeno’s brows sank at the mention of Jungwoo. “Look dude, I didn’t know if I should talk about it or not but I was walking down Main the other day and I saw Lucas’ car parked. So I went to see if he was there and say hello, and then...” Jeno paused, still seemingly unsure if he should say anything. “And then I saw Jungwoo was in there with him.”

Jaemin shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe they’re becoming friends.” Renjun had told him about Lucas and Jungwoo’s continuous rendezvous; however he didn’t feel right sharing that information with Jeno. Even though he knew Jeno wouldn’t mind if Lucas or any of his friends were with a guy, he felt like Lucas should be the one to tell him.

Jeno shook his head. “No you don’t understand. They were making out. Lucas is lucky that no one else saw him. Can you imagine if someone else in school took a picture and spread that around?”

Well, Lucas had gone and busted himself. There wasn’t much of a reason for Jaemin to stay silent anymore. “Yeah man, they’ve been hooking up since Taeyong’s party. But do you really think people would care?”

Jeno’s eyes went wide. “Since the party? Why didn’t he tell me?”

“He didn’t tell me either” assured Jaemin. “I’ve been getting all my info from Renjun.”

“Oh” Jeno seemed to relax a bit; clearly settled knowing that he wasn’t the only one Lucas was excluding. “And yeah, I think people would care. The only gay kids at our school are the drama nerds, and if Lucas _dated_ one of them…” Jeno shook his head in disbelief at the scenario. “Like, people would see us differently if we dated a _girl_ in that group, let alone a guy. I can’t even imagine the shit you’d get for it.”

Jaemin paused, red solo cup against his lips. He hadn’t really considered how other people in their school would react to Lucas liking guys. He realised he’d been in a bit of a bubble; his brother was bi and none of his friends had any problem with that. He thought his parents might be a bit homophobic but he was used to not telling them anything. Maybe there were people in this small town, in his school, hell even on his team that would have a problem with a macho footballer being gay.

Jaemin was distracted from his thoughts as he heard a familiar _ding_ from his phone. He fished it out of his pocket and saw that it was a text from Renjun.

‘I’m here. Where are you?’

Jaemin grinned automatically. “Renjun’s here.”

He replied to the text: ‘Meet me by the stairs.’

Jeno downed the last of his beer before pouring himself another one. “You know, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you might actually win this bet. He seems to like you more and more each day.”

Jaemin nodded. “Things are definitely progressing well.” Jeno did not have a clue as to how well things had progressed that day.

The two boys made their way out of the kitchen and into the living room. Their peers were dancing and drinking to the generic house music Mark was blasting over the speakers. Across the room Jaemin saw Renjun and Donghyuck waiting by the stairs. Renjun had changed into a black turtleneck for the party, and although he looked nice, Jaemin felt disappointed that he couldn’t see his handiwork from earlier that day. As Jaemin moved towards him, he locked eyes with Renjun and felt his chest tighten a little when Renjun gave him a soft smile.

“Hey” Jaemin breathed; attention entirely on Renjun.

“Hey” Renjun smiled back at him. He and Donghyuck also exchanged greetings with Jeno.

“You look really nice tonight, Renjun.” Jeno complimented the boy. Jaemin didn’t like that. He also didn’t like how jealous it made him, and he _really_ didn’t like that it made Renjun smile.

“Where are Jungwoo and Chenle?” Jaemin asked. It was unusual not to see the group together. “Did they not come?”

Renjun shook his head. “No they’re here. As soon as we got here Jungwoo ran off with…” Renjun’s eyes nervously flicked to Jeno, “…a certain someone.” Renjun’s eyebrows rose suspiciously when Jeno scoffed at the sentence. “And Chenle isn’t designated driver for once so he’s currently getting high with Jisung.”

“What? Jisung has weed? That asshole didn’t tell me.” With that, Jeno stormed off into the crowd. Renjun blinked slowly a few times at the unreasonably animated display.

Donghyuck merely shrugged. “I’m going to go find Mark. It’s rude not to say hello to the host.” He plunged himself into the throng of people.

Jaemin just looked at Renjun for a minute; the earlier events of the day swirling through his head. He could so vividly hear Renjun’s little gasps and moans in his ears. He wondered if Renjun got any louder.

God this was _not_ good.

“So, umm” Jaemin coughed, “do you want a drink?”

Renjun bit his bottom lip coyly and nodded, but instead of asking Jaemin where Mark was keeping the alcohol, he reached forward and plucked Jaemin’s drink from his hands. Jaemin watched as Renjun took a big sip of his beer, eyes locked on his, almost daring him to do something.

Jaemin swallowed, hard. 

“Do you want a tour of Mark’s house?” Jaemin asked, gesturing for them to go upstairs. He knew it was a lame and completely transparent excuse to get Renjun alone but he hoped the other boy would be fine with it.

Renjun smirked, clearly amused by how needy Jaemin was. “Yeah, I’d love to. I’m very curious about what Mark’s bedroom looks like.”

“Well then follow me” he said, taking his beer back from Renjun. He led the other up the stairs, away from the crowd.

As it was still early in the night, not many people had made their way upstairs. There were a few couples loitering in the hallway; too focused on each other to notice Renjun and Jaemin slip into a bedroom.

“This is it: Mark’s bedroom in all its glory.” Jaemin said as he shut the door behind them.

Renjun looked around at the room. There were clothes strewn over the floor and the bed was unmade. The desk was covered in an assortment of school supplies. There were a few posters of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers on the walls. Renjun chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Jaemin was curious.

Renjun shrugged. “It’s just that Mark has more pictures of hunky men on his walls than most gay guys.”

Jaemin chuckled too. “I guess, but they are professional athletes.”

“I could tell from the NFL logos. I’m not that dense.” Renjun argued lightly.

The boys lapsed into silence, both staring anywhere but at each other. Eventually Jaemin looked over to Renjun and studied him a little. He really did look beautiful in a turtleneck. Jaemin wanted to touch Renjun again and again, but he didn’t know how to start. He felt _nervous_ for once and the tension in the air was building by the second.

“Jaemin”, Renjun’s words sliced through the silence. He had noticed Jaemin was staring.

“Umm” Jaemin coughed. “Yeah?”

Renjun looked him up and down. “Come here” he said, voice full of want.

Jaemin felt like his body moved of its own accord as he crossed the room to Renjun; smashing his lips against the other boy’s.

Unlike their kiss earlier, Renjun was much less passive. Instead of melting into Jaemin’s kiss, Renjun moved his lips with confidence; not letting go of control completely. Renjun began to touch Jaemin, running his hands over his shoulders then down his chest and over his stomach. Jaemin chuckled slightly as Renjun ran his fingers up and down his abs.

“Enjoying yourself?” he mumbled against his lips.

Renjun merely hummed in agreement and kept touching. It made Jaemin wonder how turned on he was making Renjun. He reached down with both hands and grabbed Renjun’s hips and moved the boy’s body right against his own. Never moving his lips from the others, he braced Renjun with his hands and ground his crotch forward; smiling when Renjun let out a surprised moan. Jaemin grinned into the kiss as he felt Renjun’s bulge; Renjun wasn’t hard but he was getting there.

Jaemin broke away from Renjun’s mouth and started attacking his neck; earning the same delicious moans as earlier in the day. “You’re getting excited” Jaemin taunted him, whispering in his ear.

Renjun stifled his moans so he could respond. “So are you” he said, voice dripping with confidence. Jaemin couldn’t believe how sexy it was. Without hesitation, Renjun trailed his hands down from Jaemin’s abs to his crotch and gave his dick a hard squeeze through his jeans. Jaemin gasped and moaned at the motion, and his face went red as he realized Renjun was right. He was getting hard too.

Renjun’s hand didn’t stop moving; massaging his cock gently through his pants. The stimulation felt so good, but Jaemin didn’t want to be the only one experiencing pleasure. He maneuvered Renjun and walked him backwards to the edge of Mark’s bed before pushing him back. Renjun fell on the bed with a soft _oof_ and stared up at Jaemin, curious about what he was about to do. Jaemin pushed Renjun’s knees apart and crawled between his legs. He immediately swooped down and connected his lips back to Renjun’s. The kiss was sloppy and a little frantic; a sign of the intensity of the moment. Jaemin brought his hips down against Renjun’s, wanting to feel some sort of friction. He was extremely satisfied at the cry that came from Renjun’s mouth. He continued to grind himself down on Renjun, gaining double pleasure from the pressure against his crotch and the sounds Renjun was making.

They continued this way for a few minutes getting hungrier and more frantic. Jaemin felt like the intensity was reaching a boiling point so he stopped his movements and broke away from the kiss. He propped himself up with his forearms and gazed down at Renjun’s face. Jaemin thought he looked like a gorgeous mess: hair ruffled, lips swollen, cheeks and neck red. Both boys were breathing heavily; trying to take everything in.

“Are you okay?” Renjun asked through quick breaths. He was looking into Jaemin’s eyes as if trying to gauge something.

“Yeah” Jaemin smiled down at him. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Renjun gave him a small smile. “Being with me, with a guy, it’s all new for you. I thought you might be freaking out a bit honestly.”

‘It makes sense’ Jaemin thought. He probably should be overwhelmed with thoughts and emotions from this new experience. He was a little shocked about how comfortable things were with Renjun. He had never felt so at ease when being sexual with a girl before. He was enjoying himself so much with Renjun that he wasn’t thinking much about anything.

Jaemin returned Renjun’s smile and added a small kiss on his lips. “I’m fine. I don’t feel overwhelmed or anything.”

Renjun looked relieved and happy, his smile getting bigger. Jaemin kissed him again, slower and more sensually. Things quickly started ramping up again as the two made out vigorously. Jaemin felt Renjun tugging the bottom of his shirt up and he quickly sat up to help him remove it. Renjun took a second to admire Jaemin’s body once more, and blushed at the image in his head of him licking the lines on Jaemin’s torso one by one.

Jaemin hurriedly stripped Renjun of his shirt too and pushed him back down to the mattress. He smoothed his hands over Renjun’s porcelain skin and admired how his body arched up to meet him. He flicked his thumbs over Renjun’s nipples, wanting to hear the delicious noises he made before. Jaemin smiled when Renjun gasped and moaned at the contact.

“Fuck, how are you this sensitive?” Jaemin asked, still amazed by the boy.

“Shut up” Renjun groaned and covered his eyes with his hand, clearly a little embarrassed.

“No, Jun…” Jaemin gently moved Renjun’s hand away from his face and looked deep into his eyes, “…it’s so sexy.”

Renjun’s mouth fell open a little bit and before he could cover his face again, Jaemin pressed his lips against the other’s for another hungry kiss. Jaemin continued to pinch and play with Renjun’s nipples, swallowing every cry from the other boy.

Renjun broke the kiss first. “Fuck Jaem, ahh” he cried at a particularly hard pinch. “Mmm let me suck you off.”

_Oh_. Jaemin almost cried at how hot that sentence sounded coming from Renjun’s mouth. He’d always have to beg girls to give him head but Renjun actually _wanted_ to do it for him. He kissed Renjun hard in encouragement.

“Please” Jaemin gasped.

Renjun pushed against his shoulders, motioning him to get up. Once Jaemin was off Renjun and sitting up on the bed, Renjun got up off the mattress and knelt down in front of the bed. Patting the mattress in front of him, he said “come sit here”.

Jaemin swung his legs off the bed so that he was sitting in front of Renjun. Seeing the boy kneeling down in front of him made Jaemin so turned on. He couldn’t wait for Renjun to touch him.

Jaemin quickly found out that Renjun liked to tease; slowly running his fingers gently over Jaemin’s clothed thighs and crotch. Eventually he moved to unbutton Jaemin’s jeans and worked the pants halfway down his thighs. Renjun began palming Jaemin’s cock through his underwear, making him hiss at the touch. Renjun pushed his legs further apart so he could kiss Jaemin’s bare thighs. Just as he was about to whine for Renjun to move on, Renjun started to pull his underwear down: exposing Jaemin completely to him.

Jaemin knew from his many years in football locker rooms that his dick size was above average. Renjun apparently appreciated this if the smirk on his face was anything to go by. Renjun reached out and gently started stroking Jaemin, causing him to moan at the skin on skin contact. Spurred on by the noises, he brought his face down to Jaemin’s length and ran his tongue all around the tip and down the shaft. The light touches felt good but Jaemin was mostly amazed by how obscene Renjun looked with his tongue sliding all over his dick, making things wet with his saliva. Renjun gave a final cute smile before grasping the base of Jaemin’s cock and began sucking.

Renjun sucked dick like he was trying to win a competition. Jaemin had never been with anyone who was so enthusiastic and so into giving head before. It wasn’t long before Renjun had relaxed his throat enough to take all of Jaemin; bobbing his head up and down his entire length, saliva dripping all over Renjun’s chin and down Jaemin’s dick. He’d never felt anything like this before, never felt so pleasured before. It didn’t help that Renjun moaned all over his cock like he was having the best meal in his whole life.

“Fuck” Jaemin whined as he (uncontrollably) thrust up into Renjun’s willing mouth. “You sound so dirty moaning around my cock. You like sucking dick that much?” Jaemin thought the dirty talk might be a bit much; however he couldn’t stop the words from spilling out of him.

Luckily Renjun seemed to like it as he just moaned louder and sucked harder in response – taking Jaemin’s thrusts in his stride. Jaemin leaned back on one hand and gently grasped the hair on the back on Renjun’s head with the other. “Let me know if this isn’t okay” he said to the boy, before pushing his head down on his cock.

Renjun allowed himself to take all of Jaemin’s length in his mouth, using his tongue to massage the shaft as he was held there. Jaemin groaned and began to fuck up into his mouth at a quick pace.

“Fuck Jun, I’m gonna cum.” Jaemin expected Renjun to lift his head up and off Jaemin so he wouldn’t have to swallow. Instead he moaned with want and kept himself in position, taking Jaemin so well. Renjun’s eyes flicked upwards and locked with his. That’s when Jaemin came with a loud cry; thrusting hard into Renjun’s mouth and spilling down his throat.

What tipped Jaemin over the edge was how Renjun kept sucking after he came. Jaemin cried out again and again as Renjun bobbed his head up and down his length. It was too sensitive, too much, too good. When Renjun finally released him from his mouth, Jaemin’s arm gave way and he slumped back into the mattress.

“How are…, how did…, you…, I…” Jaemin couldn’t complete a sentence, too fucked out to comprehend anything.

Renjun giggled at him and joined him on the mattress, slotting his body next to his. “So it was good?”

Jaemin breathed out a laugh and looked at Renjun. “I’ve never cum so hard before in my life.” Jaemin rolled over to kiss Renjun softly and sweetly. “It was amazing.” Jaemin kissed him again and trailed his hand down Renjun’s chest till it was resting over his hard crotch. “Now we need to take care of you.”

“You don’t have to Jaem, not if you aren’t ready to.” Renjun said.

“But baby” Jaemin undid the top button of Renjun’s jeans and slid his hand down past his underwear until he was grasping his cock. “I really want to.”

Renjun moaned and threw his head back onto the bed as Jaemin started jerking him off. It was kind of weird to touch a dick that wasn’t his own, but Jaemin also really wanted to see what Renjun looked like when he came.

Renjun shimmied his jeans and underwear further down his legs so that Jaemin could have better access. Jaemin tried to work Renjun’s cock like he liked to do to himself. He alternated slow hard strokes with fast light ones. It seemed to do the trick as Renjun was soon a moaning mess under Jaemin’s hand, probably already so riled up after sucking Jaemin off.

After a little while Renjun couldn’t help but thrust his hips up into Jaemin’s hand. His moans were getting louder and his eyes were closed and scrunched cutely. Remembering how much he seemed to like the dirty talk earlier, Jaemin decided to try and push him over the edge.

“You were so good sucking my cock. How’d you get so good huh? Or did you just want to do a really good job for me?”

Instead of responding with words, Renjun’s eyes snapped open and gazed directly at Jaemin, eyes pleading. He bit his bottom lip sensually and whined at him. He was begging him to continue.

“When you swallowed my cum - I’ve never seen anything sexier.”

Renjun let out a loud moan. His thrusts were getting sloppier. He was close.

“All the sounds you make are such a turn on. Can’t wait to fuck you so hard you can’t help but scream.”

And with that, Renjun came all over Jaemin’s hand, moaning out Jaemin’s name as he climaxed. Jaemin thought that he could listen to Renjun saying his name forever.

Post-orgasm Renjun was really a sight to behold. He looked like an angel against the sheets of Mark’s bed, face morphed into an expression of pure bliss. After a few seconds Renjun was able to push himself upright so he could kiss Jaemin. It was soft and sweet: a wordless thank you. Jaemin licked into his mouth gently. He still felt hungry for Renjun and was beginning to wonder if that feeling was ever going to go away.

The door to Mark’s bedroom burst open and ruined the beautiful moment. The two boys sprung apart and hurried to clean up, pull up their pants and cover themselves. Looking to the door, they found Jungwoo and Lucas aggressively making out. Renjun’s eyes widened as he noticed Lucas’ hand down the front of Jungwoo’s pants.

The other boys didn’t notice Renjun and Jaemin until the broke their kiss and began to move towards the bed. Jungwoo shrieked in surprise at (shirtless) Renjun and Jaemin; both of which looked incredibly pissed.

“Hey Woo, maybe you should fucking check that no one’s in a room before you decide to barge in for your sexcapades with Lucas.” Renjun said, arms folded and looking very cross.

Before Jungwoo could retaliate, Lucas cut in. He had a very concerned look on his face, almost like he was in panic. Staring directly at Jaemin he said “Look, Jaemin, this isn’t what it looks like. I was…”

“Save it, Lucas.” Jaemin interrupted. “Jungwoo told Renjun about you two and then he told me. I’ve known all along.”

“Oh” Lucas still looked stunned. “So you’re not freaked out?”

“That you’re seeing a guy? No. I couldn’t give a shit who you date or fuck. And clearly I shouldn’t be one to judge” he said as he motioned towards Renjun.

Lucas gave an awkward cough, “Yeah, cool”. His eyes flicked to Renjun and then back to Jaemin. “I didn’t know you guys were so… close.”

“It’s a recent thing” Jaemin said as he tossed Renjun his shirt from the floor and started to put on his own. “Do you mind if you keep it to yourself for now?”

“Yeah dude, for sure” responded Lucas. “Are you the only one that knows about me and Woo?”

Jaemin shook his head. “Sorry bro. I tried to keep it to myself but Jeno saw you two kissing in your car the other day, so I let him know about it.” Jaemin gave Lucas a supportive smile. “He didn’t really give a shit either, just thought that you two should be a bit more careful in public.”

Lucas nodded solemnly. “He’s probably right.”

Jaemin glanced over at Renjun who was still shooting an ultra-annoyed glare in Jungwoo’s direction.

“Come on Jun” he said, taking Renjun’s hand. “The mood’s ruined now. Let’s go downstairs and enjoy the party.”

Renjun huffed and mumbled a “whatever” before allowing himself to be led out of the bedroom.

“Have fun.” Jaemin winked at Lucas and Jungwoo before shutting the door to Mark’s room.

Jaemin started laughing as soon as the door shut. “What?” asked Renjun, curious and still a little annoyed.

Jaemin shook his head and smiled. “I was just thinking about how Mark would react if he knew how many people had been in his bed tonight.”

This idea made Renjun laugh too and Jaemin was happy there was a smile back on his face. “Come on, let’s go join the party” Jaemin suggested.

Renjun nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I’d like that.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's smut in this chapter too, just so you know.

_Shut your damn mouth_   
_ You're talking too loud_   
_ And no one cares if you two made out_

With each passing day, Jaemin found it increasingly harder to keep from kissing Renjun every minute of every hour. This wasn’t much of a problem at night after he had finished work at the florist shop. He’d patiently wait as he and Renjun’s family ate dinner together and talked joyfully about school, the flower store and Chen’s latest artistic creation. However once dinner was finished and they went upstairs to ‘study’, Jaemin would instantly pounce on Renjun and satiate his need for the boy’s kiss. At least until Renjun stopped him and forced him to do his homework.

School was a different story and Jaemin was forced to get creative. They couldn’t make out behind the art block like all the other couples. Jaemin didn’t really want the entire school to know, and it seemed like Renjun was of the same opinion. However that fear did little to hold Jaemin back. Throughout the week, he had been shoving Renjun into empty classrooms, locker room shower stalls and supply closets just to steal a quick kiss.

It was Friday and lunch had just started. Jaemin was at his usual table waiting for his friends to join him. He was thinking about what excuse he’d use to leave the table early before texting Renjun to meet up with him. He was snapped out of his thoughts when Lucas sat down in front of him.

“Hey man” said Jaemin. “Where’s everyone else?”

“They got held back for being too rowdy in chemistry. They should be out soon.” Lucas answered. Lucas looked dower and serious. It worried Jaemin a lot.

Lucas ran his giant hand through his hair. “Look dude, we need to talk.”

Jaemin gulped, wondering what he could have done. “Sure, go ahead.”

Lucas sighed as if he was gathering up courage. “You need to end this bet with Mark. You need to stop seeing Renjun.”

Jaemin’s mouth fell open. He couldn’t fathom why Lucas would ask that of him. “Why?” he croaked out.

“Because if you keep leading Renjun on like this, or even worse if he finds out about the bet, Jungwoo is going to hate me forever for letting my best friend dick over his best friend.” Lucas exhaled hard. “So please, if you aren’t actually interested in him then end it now and for God’s sake end it gently.”

Jaemin really didn’t like being confronted with ideas he was already struggling with. “Why do you care?” he asked. “I thought you and Jungwoo were just fucking around.”

Lucas looked down at the table, shoulders low. “I think I might be in love with him” he mumbled.

Jaemin gasped, completely floored by the confession. Lucas had apparently done a really good job at hiding his feelings. It took Jaemin a while to be able to speak again.

“Have you told him?” he asked softly.

Lucas finally looked up from the table and shook his head. “I want to though. I want to be _with_ him, you know? Like a real couple.”

“Lucas…” Jaemin began, his thoughts flashing back to his conversation with Jeno in Mark’s kitchen. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. You don’t know how people will react.”

“Yeah well fuck people.” Lucas dismissed. “I already came out to my parents and they’re cool with it. As long as you and the other guys are okay with it then I really don’t care about everyone else.”

Jaemin felt such admiration for Lucas at this moment. He’d never seen anyone act so brave in real life before. He smiled at him. “Well good for you man. I hope it all goes well for you. I’ve got your back.”

“Thanks” Lucas breathed out, looking somewhat relieved. “So what are you going to do about Renjun?”

Jaemin shrugged. “I guess I’ll stop seeing him. Hopefully Mark won’t be a dick and just call the bet off once he hears the situation.”

Lucas blinked at him. “You’ll really be okay with not seeing Renjun?”

‘No’ Jaemin answered in his head straight away. The idea of not seeing Renjun anymore sounded like hell. But without the bet he didn’t really have an excuse to be with him anymore. “Yeah, sure. Like it sucks that I won’t get free beer and weed off Mark for an entire year but it’s all good.”

Lucas seemed skeptical of his answer but didn’t probe further.

Somehow Jaemin had forgotten that this all had to end at some point; that there had been a time limit to his relationship with Renjun. Leading Renjun on for so long was cruel and Jaemin couldn’t fathom how he didn’t see that from the moment the bet started.

He would do it tonight. He would end things with Renjun. Tell him that he wasn’t ready to be in a relationship with another guy and all the strings that came attached with that. It wasn’t a lie. He wasn’t as brave as Lucas.

Jaemin looked over at Renjun from across the room. He was smiling at something Jungwoo was saying, looking as beautiful as ever.

He wished he could be brave.

* * *

“Hey is something wrong? You’ve been so quiet tonight.”

Jaemin snapped his head up from his math homework at Renjun’s words. He had been pretty quiet throughout dinner and now during their tutoring session. Usually Jaemin would have pushed Renjun down on his bed and attacked his lips by now, but he chose to go straight to his homework tonight. Jaemin just couldn’t seem to escape his thoughts.

“I’m okay. I’ve just had a lot on my mind today.” Jaemin sighed into his homework.

Renjun scooted his chair next to Jaemin’s. “Well maybe I can distract you” he said before leaning forward and kissing Jaemin’s lips. He immediately melted into the kiss. Jaemin placed his hands against Renjun’s face, cradling the boy and keeping him near. He felt himself getting sucked in deeper and deeper and he couldn’t stop it.

A knock on the door frame caused the two to split apart in surprise. They both looked over to see Sunny and Chen in Renjun’s doorway with big grins on both their faces.

“Umm, we were just …” Jaemin instantly tried to explain something that was completely obvious. Renjun just sat there looking a little embarrassed.

“Don’t worry Jaemin. We knew this would happen eventually.” Chen said, still grinning.

“You… What?” Jaemin questioned Chen’s confusing statement.

“Your auras dear” Sunny spoke up, “they’re very cohesive.”

“Huh.” Jaemin was still confused.

Renjun groaned and exasperatedly asked his parents “What do you want?”

“Oh we’re going to that art show your dad’s friend is putting on. We told you about it last week.” Sunny reminded Renjun gently.

Renjun raised an eyebrow. “Is this the one where there’s a bunch of nude models walking around and if they catch you looking at them they spray you in the face with water?”

Jaemin’s jaw dropped. Was that actually a thing?

“Yes that’s the one.” Chen confirmed. “It’s such a biting critique of the American media’s duality of sexualization and prudishness. You two should come with us.”

Jaemin tried to think of an excuse but Renjun was not afraid to reject them. “No way, that sounds awful dad. Jaemin and I will just stay here.”

Chen tutted but eventually shrugged and said “it’s your choice”.

“We’ll be home in a few hours lovelies” Sunny cooed at them before dragging Chen out of the doorway and down the stairs.

Once they heard the front door shut, Renjun crawled into Jaemin’s lap and slung his arms around his neck. “We’re all alone” he said, grinning slyly.

They hadn’t really had much privacy or time together since Mark’s party. Now they were completely alone in a big house for a few hours. Jaemin knew what Renjun was thinking but decided to tease him a little.

Jaemin smoothed his hands over Renjun’s thighs and leaned so their lips were close. He whispered, “Hmm I know. We’ll have lots of peace and quiet to do our homework." 

The pout on Renjun’s face made Jaemin laugh out loud and give up the teasing act. He grabbed the back of Renjun’s neck and pulled him into another kiss. It was automatically heated and frantic. Though the two boys were sharing one chair, they both tried to get impossibly closer to the other. Jaemin’s hands were roaming all over Renjun’s body, eventually landing on his ass. Over the week Jaemin had become quite obsessed with it, squeezing Renjun’s cheeks at every chance he got. He loved the quiet whimper that escaped Renjun’s lips as he grabbed handfuls. Renjun made sure to grind himself against Jaemin’s crotch to let him know how needy he was.

All Jaemin wanted to do in that moment was oblige Renjun and give him everything that he wanted. He hooked his hands under Renjun’s thighs and stood up from the chair. He lifted Renjun up and over to the bed before dumping him, not so gracefully, down on the mattress. “Take your pants off” he whispered to the other boy before stripping himself of his own jeans.

Renjun was quick to comply, unbuckling his pants and lifting his hips so he could push them off and toss them to the floor. As soon as he was finished, Jaemin slid up between his legs and joined their lips together again. He rolled his hips down to meet Renjun’s, causing some delicious friction for the both of them. Soon enough Renjun was fishing Jaemin’s thick cock out of his underwear as well as his own, slotting the two dicks together in his tiny hand and roughly jerking them off. Jaemin moaned in Renjun’s mouth at his actions. The pleasure was slowly consuming him. Everything was becoming Renjun.

Jaemin felt his release brewing and didn’t want things to end so quickly. He broke the kiss. “I need to stop for a bit” he panted. “You’re gonna make me cum too soon.”

Renjun smiled at him, clearly impressed with himself. He ran his fingers delicately over Jaemin’s cock. “So what do you want to do now?” he asked coyly.

Jaemin bit his bottom lip and stared into Renjun’s eyes as a million different scenarios played in his head. He wanted to make Renjun feel amazing. He didn’t know if he had the skill set yet, but dammit he was going to try.

He tugged Renjun’s briefs the rest of the way down his slim legs and then pulled his shirt up over his head. Seeing Renjun completely naked had Jaemin in awe.

_He was stunning. _Renjun’s slender body and long expanse of pale skin was so beautiful to Jaemin’s eyes. He looked so delicate and strong at the same time. Jaemin was in awe of him.

Renjun clearly felt a little self-conscious being the only naked one from the way he wriggled on the bed, so Jaemin quickly undressed himself. He laid back down next to Renjun, looking deep into the others eyes. Being naked together, touching each other, it felt so intimate. It was like nothing Jaemin had felt before when being sexual with another person. It felt _romantic_.

Jaemin kissed Renjun slowly. He savored each second of this beautiful moment. It was so intense, so real, and he knew Renjun could feel it too. “I want to make you feel good” Jaemin mumbled in between kisses. “Can I try giving you head?” he asked tentatively.

Renjun’s eyes widened a little, but he excitedly nodded. Jaemin kissed his way down Renjun’s body until he was settled in between his legs. Looking at Renjun’s crotch Jaemin felt a little nervous. Sucking dick didn’t exactly seem pleasant but he wanted to make Renjun feel good. He wanted to do a good job.

Apparently Jaemin had been caught up in his thoughts for a few moments because Renjun said “You don’t have to do it if you aren’t ready Jaem.”

Jaemin blinked up at him. “No I want to, I really do. I’m just worried I won’t be very good at it.”

Renjun smiled lovingly and ran his fingers through Jaemin’s hair. “I’m sure it’ll feel great. Don’t think too much about it.”

Renjun was right. Jaemin was overthinking it. Without any more hesitation Jaemin reached his hand out and grasped Renjun’s penis. Angling it towards his mouth, he poked his tongue out and gave the head a tentative lick making Renjun give out a small gasp. It didn’t taste bad, Jaemin noted. It just tasted like skin. Feeling more confident Jaemin continued to lick around the head and then down the shaft. Renjun’s breathing was getting a lot quicker, but Jaemin wanted more. He wanted Renjun to _scream_ for him.

When Jaemin took Renjun into his mouth, the other boy couldn’t help but groan and arch his hips up. Jaemin looped his arms around Renjun’s legs and held them down, stopping any inconvenient movements. Jaemin went slowly at first, working his way gradually further and further down the shaft. Somewhere along the way Jaemin decided the physical act of sucking dick wasn’t so bad. So long as he didn’t force himself too far down Renjun’s cock it didn’t feel uncomfortable. There was one aspect that Jaemin _loved_ about it, and it made him see why Renjun might try so hard to give good head.

Renjun was a _mess_ beneath him. His eyes fluttered open and closed, teeth dug into his bottom lip, moans and whimpers spilling out of his mouth. He was clearly trying to hold his body back from moving too much as his chest rose and fell rapidly. Renjun’s appearance only made Jaemin try harder and harder to please him. It made him feel so powerful to be able to break Renjun apart like this.

As gorgeous as Renjun was, Jaemin wanted more. He wanted to see Renjun in so much pleasure that he couldn’t think or see straight, and he wanted to be the reason. He remembered the things Taeyong had said to him about his gay experiences, particularly one experience which Taeyong had described as “the best way to get any dude to lose their fucking mind in the sack.” It was worth a shot.

Jaemin pulled off of Renjun’s cock and kissed his way down the shaft. He tongued at Renjun’s balls and sucked on each one a little. Encouraged by Renjun’s choked moans, he continued. Jaemin stroked his tongue down Renjun’s perineum and hesitated for a moment before darting his tongue out to lick his hole. Renjun immediately cried out in shock and bucked his hips up, only to have Jaemin tighten his grip and force his body back down.

“Jaemin, you don’t have to – ungh.” Jaemin didn’t let Renjun finish before he began licking the boy again. He felt like he wasn’t even doing that much, just licking softly, yet Renjun was already so loud and unable to control his voice. Wanting better access Jaemin sat up on his knees and grabbed Renjun’s ankles. He pushed his legs back till Renjun’s ankles were each beside his head, effectively folding his body in half. Placing one hand on Renjun’s lower back and one hand on his thigh Jaemin held him into position. Much better.

Jaemin got straight back to it, licking and sucking at Renjun’s hole. _This_ was what he had been waiting for. Renjun was screaming and whining his name over and over. Jaemin felt absolutely drunk with power and it only spurred him on to lick into Renjun further and further. Renjun was losing it as Jaemin ate him out, moaning out things incoherently as Jaemin thrust his tongue inside him.

“Fuck, Jaem, no I – fuck. Please, ah. Oh God fill me up please.”

_Oh_. That was interesting.

Jaemin placed Renjun’s hips back down onto the bed and crawled in between his legs until he was face to face with the boy. “What do you want baby?” he whispered in his ear before kissing Renjun’s neck. “Do you want me to fuck you?”

Renjun moaned and nodded intensely. “Please, Jaem” he begged.

Jaemin propped himself up on his forearms and looked down and Renjun. “What should I do to get you ready?” he asked uncertainly.

“You’ll need to stretch me out with your fingers” Renjun explained. “There’s lube and condoms in the top drawer” he said as he pointed to his bedside table.

Jaemin reached out and opened the drawer, finding a bottle of lube and a box of condoms. He grabbed one condom out of the box and tossed it onto the bed before taking the lube out of the drawer. “How much do I need?” he asked Renjun, holding up the bottle of lube. He’d never used lube before, or done anal for that fact, and he wanted to get things right.

“Coat three of your fingers” Renjun suggested. “Just warm up the lube in your hands a bit first.”

Jaemin nodded and squirted out the lube onto his fingers, rubbing it around with his other hand to warm it. He rubbed the excess on Renjun’s hole, figuring that it would be useful.

“Start with one” guided Renjun. Jaemin nodded and slowly pushed his index finger past the ring of muscle until it was fully inside Renjun. It was tight; really tight. Jaemin didn’t know how he was ever going to fit. He worked his finger in and out of Renjun until he could feel the other loosening up slightly.

“You can add another” encouraged Renjun, so Jaemin did. As he pushed two fingers inside Renjun let out a long moan. “You like getting fingered?” asked Jaemin as he chuckled.

“Yeah” Renjun breathed out, looking down at him. “Getting stretched out is kind of intense, but in a good way. It gets really good when you hit that special place though.”

Ah yes, Taeyong had mentioned that too. Jaemin pumped his fingers in and out of Renjun, enjoying the whimpers it pulled from the boy, and searching for his prostate. Suddenly he felt his fingers drag along something slightly hard and spongy. The loud cry that erupted from Renjun’s lips made Jaemin stop and grin.

“Did I just…?” he asked.

“Yes” Renjun gasped out. “Please, more.”

Jaemin started pumping his fingers again, this time making sure to hit that spot over and over. Renjun soon became and babbling mess once more, whining and grunting out Jaemin’s name. Jaemin didn’t even care that he wasn’t getting off; he was having way too much fun giving Renjun pleasure.

“You can add another” Renjun groaned out. His eyes were shut and his head was thrown back into his pillows. “I can handle more.”

“Okay” Jaemin complied as he added another finger to his movements, almost immediately finding Renjun’s prostate again. Renjun tried to stifle his moans by softly biting his hand, which Jaemin immediately stopped.

“No, no baby. I want to hear you” he said as he pulled Renjun’s hand away. Renjun whined in response but didn’t bring his hand back.

Jaemin breathed heavily as he noticed Renjun had started to move his hips in time with Jaemin’s fingers, thrusting himself back onto Jaemin’s hand. He loved how much Renjun was enjoying this.

“Jaem” Renjun gasped out, still moving his hips further onto Jaemin’s fingers, “I need you.”

Jaemin got the message loud and clear. He leant down to kiss Renjun again, their tongues sliding over each other’s messily, and removed his fingers. Jaemin was unbelievably hard by now and needed release, but he could tell there was something else driving him to do this. He felt so connected to Renjun, as if he were magnetized to the other.

Jaemin somehow managed to detach himself from Renjun’s lips to search for the condom he’d thrown on the bed earlier. He ripped open the foil packet and (seamlessly) rolled it down his cock. Renjun sat up and grabbed the lube bottle from next to him. He squeezed a dollop onto his hand before grasping Jaemin’s dick and spreading the lube onto it. Jaemin moaned, super sensitive as he hadn’t been touched for so long.

“How do you want me?” Renjun asked, still jerking Jaemin off.

Jaemin tried to stop himself from moaning. “Ah, hmm, can you be on top? I don’t want to hurt you and I’d like you to be in control at first.”

Renjun looked a little taken aback by such consideration and smiled and nodded at the other boy. He kneeled up to sweetly kiss Jaemin on the lips in confirmation. Jaemin sat against the headboard and beckoned for Renjun to come sit on his lap. Jaemin let out a breath in awe as Renjun crawled onto his lap. The boy looked all fucked out and pretty, and Jaemin really appreciated it. Jaemin snapped up another kiss quickly, and groaned as Renjun grasped his cock and pressed the tip against his entrance.

Renjun broke the kiss, stared deep into Jaemin’s eyes and asked “You ready?” Jaemin eagerly nodded in response. Renjun slowly sank himself down onto his cock, breathing slowly and keeping relaxed until he was fully seated in Jaemin’s lap. Jaemin threw his head back and moaned loudly as he entered Renjun. _Fuck_ it was so tight and wet around his dick. He struggled to keep himself from thrusting up into the boy.

“Fuck, Jun, you feel amazing” Jaemin whined out. Renjun’s had his eyes closed, lips pursed and brows knitted together. “Are you okay? Does it hurt?” he asked worriedly.

Renjun shook his head and rested his forehead against Jaemin’s. “No it’s okay, it doesn’t hurt. But you’re big so it still feels intense.”

Jaemin captured his lips in a tender kiss in an attempt to relax him. “Just let me know when you’re ready baby.” The two stayed that way for a few moments – kissing and touching each other gently. Renjun decided to let Jaemin know he was ready by rolling his hips back and forth, ever so slightly thrusting Jaemin’s cock in and out of himself. Jaemin let out a choked moan, surprised by the action.

Renjun hummed in contentment. “Do you want more?” he asked Jaemin cockily. All Jaemin could do was nod and plead with his eyes for Renjun to continue.

Renjun gripped the top of the headboard Jaemin was resting on and planted the soles of his feet firmly onto the mattress. He then began lifting himself up off Jaemin’s dick right to the tip, but before Jaemin could slip out he dropped himself back down – fucking himself down onto Jaemin’s cock. Both boys let out deep moans at the sensation, encouraging Renjun to ride Jaemin with enthusiasm.

Jaemin thought Renjun looked absolutely ethereal as he rode him. A glow seemed to emanate from his as he bounced up and down on Jaemin’s lap with his back arched, mouth slightly agar and eyes closed. Although Jaemin was enjoying the show, it was getting harder to be so passive. He made a very loud whining noise.

This made Renjun stop his movements and smile down at him, realizing what was wrong. He kissed Jaemin gently and then whispered “go for it Jaem”. Jaemin didn’t need much more encouragement then that.

Jaemin grabbed Renjun’s ass with both hands, braced his feet firmly on the mattress and began thrusting his hips up, fucking deep into Renjun. Moan after moan left Renjun’s mouth as Jaemin drove in and out of him.

“Ahh God bless you and your huge fucking dick” Renjun managed to gasp out. Renjun was going a little crazy as Jaemin hit his spot again and again. “Mmm please more, harder” he begged.

Jaemin was more than happy to oblige.

Grasping Renjun firmly, Jaemin flipped them over till he was on top and Renjun was on the mattress. Renjun didn’t have time to be surprised as Jaemin quickly started pounding into him. He felt his eyes roll into the back of his head as Jaemin thrust _hard_ in and out of him, over and over. Complete nonsense spilled from Renjun’s lips as his prostate was abused continuously.

“Jaemin ah ah, I’m gonna cum” Renjun managed to eke out.

“Hmm me too baby” Jaemin huffed out, slightly out of breath from thrusting so fast. He reached his hand down and grasped Renjun’s cock. Jaemin stroked Renjun fast and rough until he came with a loud yell of his name. The clenching of Renjun’s muscles as he came pushed Jaemin over the edge, pushing himself deep inside Renjun and cumming into the condom.

Jaemin collapsed on top of Renjun and tried to catch his breath after his mind-shattering orgasm. Soon enough however, Renjun was whining for Jaemin to get off of him.

“Jaem, you’re squishing me.”

Jaemin pushed himself up onto his elbows so he wasn’t crushing Renjun anymore. He looked down at the other boy with a big grin before swooping down and stealing a sweet kiss. They kissed for a moment before Jaemin pulled out and flopped onto the bed beside Renjun, taking the condom off and tossing it into a nearby trash can. Renjun grabbed his shirt off the floor and wiped off the cum that had pooled on his stomach before chucking the soiled shirt into his laundry hamper.

“That was… that was…” Jaemin couldn’t finish his sentence.

“Awesome? Mind-blowing? Out of this world?” Renjun offered up.

“The best sex I’ve ever had.” Jaemin finished. 

Renjun smiled wide at that. “I always knew I was better than any girl” he said sassily.

Jaemin just giggled and kissed Renjun lovingly. He felt drunk, silly and very happy. He didn’t know what that meant.

Renjun yawned against his mouth. “As great as that was, can we go to sleep now? You tired me out.”

Jaemin started to feel his usual post-orgasm tiredness wash over him too. “Yeah, let’s get some sleep.”

The two boys tucked themselves into the bed; Renjun snuggled deeply in Jaemin’s arms. They rested silently, letting sleep overtake them.

As Jaemin drifted off, he could have sworn he heard Renjun mumble “I think I love you” into his chest.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's smut in this chapter too, just so you know.

_I don’t care what you’re saying_

_I don’t wanna participate in your game of manipulation_

Jaemin awoke to the warm feeling of sunlight on his face. He blinked his eyes open to see beams of light pouring through Renjun’s bedroom window. He looked down to find Renjun still curled up against his chest, dozing peacefully in his arms. At the sight Jaemin suddenly remembered what Renjun had said to him as he fell asleep.

_“I think I love you.”_

Jaemin realized that he hadn’t been actively trying to win his bet with Mark for a little while now. Yet he had done it; he had made Renjun fall in love with him.

However in that process, he had fallen in love with Renjun.

Jaemin couldn’t deny it anymore. He had never been in love before and at the time he never realized what it was – always blaming his actions on the bet. Now, as he held Renjun in his arms, he could see everything so clearly. He was desperately in love with Renjun, and he wasn’t about to give that up.

He needed to talk to Mark.

Jaemin’s phone buzzed on Renjun’s beside table, so he reached over to check it. Lucas had sent a message to their group chat.

Lucas: Yo everyone rally for breakfast at that diner near Jae’s house. I have important news to tell you all.

Lucas: Also I want waffles.

“He must want to let everyone know about him and Jungwoo” Jaemin thought. The others responded quickly in the chat.

Jisung: Hell yeah I want waffles too, they’re the best breakfast food

Jeno: Idk I’m more of a pancakes man myself

Mark: Wtf are you guys on about. Bacon and eggs all the way. Why you gotta have dessert at the start of the day?

Lucas: Guys you can order whatever the hell you want. Just get there in fifteen.

Mark: Roger that.

Jaemin sent “I’ll be there” to the group chat before setting his phone down and gazing back at Renjun. He didn’t want to leave him but this was the perfect opportunity to talk to everyone; the perfect opportunity to be brave.

Jaemin carefully shifted Renjun till he was no longer laying on Jaemin. Luckily he didn’t wake up and Jaemin realized that Renjun was (thankfully) a very deep sleeper. Quickly and quietly, Jaemin put his clothes on and grabbed the pen and paper sitting on Renjun’s desk.

_I’ve just gone to get us some coffee from the diner. I won’t be long. _ _Jaem_

He left the note on the pillow next to Renjun’s head and slipped out the door.

It only took Jaemin a few minutes to reach the diner. Once there, he found Lucas and Jisung sitting in one of the booths

“Hey guys” he greeted them and sat down across from them. “You ordered yet?” he asked the two.

“No not yet” sulked Jisung. “Lucas wants to tell us all his big news first so we don’t get distracted by food.”

Jaemin laughed. “Good call man. I can’t imagine holding Mark’s attention for more than two seconds when he knows food is coming.”

“Ah speak of the devil” Lucas commented as Mark and Jeno strolled into the diner. They spotted their friends immediately and piled into the booth.

“Where are the menus?” Mark asked.

Jisung pointed to the stack of menus in front of Lucas. “He’s holding them hostage until we hear his big announcement.”

“Okay well, get it over with then.” Jeno grumbled. “We’ve got breakfast to eat.”

“Guys can we take this seriously?” scolded Jaemin.

“Why?” Mark raised an eyebrow. “Do you already know what it is? Lucas c’mon man what is it?”

Lucas exhaled loudly. “Okay, just promise you won’t hate me, or be weirded out, or treat me differently because of this.”

“Shit, what did you do?” Jisung asked.

Lucas glanced around at them all. “I like boys.”

“What? You like boys? As in _like_ like?” Mark asked, confused.

“Yeah” Lucas confirmed. “Well, I mean, I like _a_ boy. I like him a lot actually.”

“Is it Jungwoo?” Jeno asked.

Lucas nodded in agreement.

“Jungwoo? When did that happen?” Jisung asked, clearly confused as well.

“We’ve been hooking up since Taeyong’s party.” Lucas revealed. “But I realized that I want more than that with him. So that’s why I’m telling you guys now.”

A heavy silence fell over the group, everyone absorbing the new information.

Lucas was continuously getting antsier until he finally blurted out “So guys are we good?”

Jaemin spoke up first. “Of course man, as if that would change anything.”

“Yeah” Mark agreed. “If you want to date Jungwoo, that’s fine.”

“I’m glad you finally told us about it.” Jeno added. Jisung just smiled supportively.

Lucas breathed out a huge sigh of relief. “Cool. Now we can order food.” He passed everyone a menu.

“It’s cool we have a gay friend now” Mark said as he browsed the menu. “We can finally refer to ourselves as diverse.”

Jaemin gulped. Now was a good a time as any to come clean. But before he could speak, Jisung began studying him curiously.

“Hey Jae, weren’t you wearing the same clothes yesterday?”

The others looked up from their menus to confirm.

“That’s right, you were” Mark chuckled. “Which cheerleader did you get a booty call from this time?”

Jaemin took a calming breath. “Actually I was with Renjun last night.” He glanced around to gauge everyone’s reactions.

Everyone, except Lucas, looked mostly confused. “You were with him the whole night?” Jeno questioned slowly. Jaemin only nodded in response.

Mark laughed loudly and playfully punched Jaemin’s shoulder. “Wow dude, you’re really going all out to win this bet. I know a year of free beer and weed is a pretty killer prize but I never expected you to spend so much time with the guy. You should save yourself the trouble and give up now. You’ve only got a week left anyway. It’s not like you’re going to win. He’s never going to fall for you.”

Jaemin couldn’t help himself. “I’ve already won dickhead” he jeered at Mark. “He told me he loves me.”

“What?” the whole group exclaimed. Mark’s taunting smile fell from his face. “When the fuck did that happen?” he interrogated.

“Last night” Jaemin explained, “when we were going to sleep. Pretty sure he doesn’t think that I heard him, but he definitely said it.”

Jisung let out a long whistle. “Well I guess it’s been proven. Na Jaemin can make anyone fall in love with him.”

Jeno hummed in agreement. “So how are you going to end it with him now that it’s all over?” he asked.

Jaemin paused. This was the moment. This was the time to let everyone know his true feelings towards Renjun.

“Oh shit” Lucas gasped out, his eyes directed above Jaemin’s head. Jaemin turned around to see Renjun getting out of the booth behind him. A cold feeling washed over his entire body.

Renjun merely took one look at Jaemin then ran out of the diner.

“Renjun!” Jaemin cried out after him as he scrambled past Mark to get out of the booth. The other boys were calling out to him but he couldn’t hear what they were saying as he ran out of the diner and onto the street. He spotted Renjun quickly running down the sidewalk, so he sprinted after him. It didn’t take long to catch up.

Jaemin grabbed Renjun’s wrist to halt him. “Renjun wait, please let me explain.”

Renjun wouldn’t look at him. “You’re an asshole Jaemin, let me go.” Then Jaemin realized Renjun was crying.

“No, we need to talk about this. What did you hear?” Jaemin begged.

Renjun, realizing Jaemin wasn’t going to let him go, spoke up. “I saw your note when I woke up, and I thought it would be nice to have breakfast at the diner together. But when I got there I saw you weren’t getting coffee. You were with all of them, and I heard Lucas say Jungwoo’s name, so I ducked into the booth behind you to hear what Lucas had to say. But then you started talking about me and …” Renjun cut himself off, clearly trying to stifle a sob. After a moment, Renjun looked up at Jaemin with glassy eyes. “I knew there was something off about this right from the start. I can’t believe I let myself fall for this.”

“No, Renjun,” Jaemin was starting to cry too, “this, us, is real. It may not have started that way but over time I started falling for you. I …” Jaemin really wished he was saying this under better circumstances, “I’m in love with you. That’s why I was at the diner with them. I wanted to tell everyone that the bet was off and that I want to be with you.”

As Jaemin talked, Renjun kept shaking his head. “What makes you think I’d ever believe a word you say anymore?” Renjun questioned spitefully. “I’m done with you Jaemin.”

Jaemin’s heart sunk deep into his stomach. He let go of Renjun’s wrist and brought both his hands up to frame the sides of Renjun’s face. “Please baby” he kissed Renjun softly, “please believe me. Please, I love you.” He kissed Renjun again, and for a moment it seemed like he was relenting, until he felt a hard shove against his chest pushing him away from the other.

“No” Renjun yelled. “You don’t get to call me baby and just kiss me after this. You’re an awful human being Jaemin, and I want nothing to do with you. Don’t ever speak to me again.”

Jaemin felt stuck. All he could do was watch as Renjun ran away from him. He watched until Renjun turned a corner and he couldn’t see him anymore. After a few moments, Jaemin wiped his eyes and trudged back inside the diner, throwing himself into the booth with all his friends. Instantly he put his head in his hands, shielding himself from the curious gazes.

“Hey man, are you okay?” Jisung asked softly.

“Sure he is” Mark answered for him. “Now he doesn’t have to deal with such a crazy, high-maintenance drama nerd.” He then added a “sorry” to Lucas after he was sent a filthy look.

Jaemin brought his head up and looked at Mark. “Don’t fucking speak about him like that” he snarled at him.

Mark was clearly taken about. “Dude what’s your problem?” he asked incredulously. “Don’t tell me you actually liked him.”

Jaemin stood up and got out of the booth. “I love him. I was going to tell you all this morning after Lucas told you about Jungwoo. I told him just now, but he didn’t believe me. So thanks for fucking this up for me Mark Lee.”

Mark was angry. “Listen Jaemin, you didn’t have to agree to do any of this. You didn’t have to accept the bet but you did. I’m sorry you went and fell in love with this dude but you’ve got only yourself to blame.”

In his heart Jaemin knew he was correct. “You’re right, I just …” he took a calming breath, “I just don’t know what to do. He told me to stay away from him.” Jaemin felt like he was going to start to cry again.

Lucas groaned. “He’s going to tell Jungwoo that I knew about this.”

Jaemin felt incredibly guilty. “I’m so sorry Lucas. I didn’t mean for it to happen this way.” Jaemin blinked back his tears. “I can’t believe how badly I fucked this up, for both of us.”

“It’s going to be alright guys” Jisung spoke up. “I mean, they’ll both calm down eventually then hear you out, right?”

Jaemin and Lucas both shook their heads, the clouds of depression that surrounded them getting darker. “No Jisung” Jaemin breathed out, “I don’t think they will.”

“But you have to keep trying” Jisung encouraged. “Isn’t that what you’re meant to do when you’re in love: fight for it?”

“Yeah” Lucas perked up. “We should fight for it.” Jaemin nodded at him in agreement and sat down at the table again.

After a few moments of silence Mark chuckled. “I can’t believe we have _two_ gay people in our group. We’re definitely diverse now.”

“Shut up Mark” Jeno jabbed. “You can hardly talk. We all know you’ve been messaging Donghyuck non-stop.”

Mark’s only response was to turn beet red and splutter incoherently.

* * *

Renjun stopped running once he rounded the corner, out of Jaemin’s sight. He leaned against the wall of the building behind him, waiting to see if Jaemin was following him. Once he was sure he wasn’t, he slumped down to the ground and let himself fall apart.

Tears streamed out of his eyes uncontrollably. He covered his face with his hands and let out a muffled scream of frustration. How could he have been so stupid? He saw all the signs that something was not right in how Jaemin acted towards him. He should have listened to his gut and told Jaemin to get lost. Instead he went and fell in love.

He fell in love with a monster.

Renjun had never been in love before, so he never knew what heartbreak felt like. “It’s funny” Renjun though, “my heart doesn’t hurt at all.” Instead Renjun experienced a deep wrenching in his gut and an inability to catch his breath. Worst of all he just felt so _used_. He’d had sex before Jaemin, but it had felt so romantic and intimate with him. It felt like Jaemin had made love to him. But that was all a lie.

Eventually Renjun picked himself off the ground and did the only thing his body could do at that moment: he ran. He ran to the people he knew who truly did love him.

Renjun was out of breath and heaving by the time he made it to Chenle’s house from the diner. Crying, as it turns out, makes running ten times more painful than it already is. He knocked only a few times before Chenle opened the door. Chenle smiled for a split second before he noticed Renjun’s tears, and the smile was replaced with a look of extreme concern. “Renjun, what the fuck happen?” he asked.

Renjun was breathing too heavily to speak properly. “Jaemin… his friends… a bet… fuck, running is awful.”

“Okay, okay just come inside.” Chenle ushered him in. “Let’s go up to my room so my parents don’t see you like this.” As they were walking upstairs, Chenle sent a quick “SOS @ my house” to the group chat.

“The others are on their way” he said as they sat down on his bed. He handed Renjun a tissue and gave him a soft smile. “Just try and calm down a bit so you can talk about whatever happened.”

It took no more than 5 minutes for Jungwoo and Donghyuck to come bursting through Chenle’s bedroom door. “What happened?” asked Donghyuck. The two boys then noticed Renjun’s red eyes and wet cheeks and immediately rushed to him. “Junnie are you okay?” Jungwoo asked softly.

“Are you ready to talk about it?” asked Chenle. Renjun nodded his head slowly and took a deep breath in preparation.

“So Jaemin and I slept together last night”, he began. “It was great, I was so happy. I… I told him I loved him when I thought he was asleep.”

“But isn’t that a good thing? He’s clearly crazy about you.” Donghyuck looked confused.

Renjun shook his head. “He wasn’t there when I woke up. He left a note saying he was getting coffee from the diner near my house, and I really like their blueberry pancakes so I thought I would meet him at the diner and we could have breakfast.”

The other boys nodded along, still confused why Renjun was so upset.

“But then when I got to the diner” Renjun continued, “Jaemin was with all his friends in one of the booths. I heard Lucas say Jungwoo’s name so I crept into the booth next to theirs to listen in, for Woo’s sake you know?”

“What did he say?” Jungwoo asked.

“He came out to all of them, and he told them about how he’s been hooking up with you. He said that he wants to start dating you.”

Jungwoo just looked amazed. He clasped his hands over his mouth with wide eyes.

Renjun nodded, “I was so happy for you Woo, but then…” Renjun trailed off.

“What is it?” Donghyuk encouraged.

“Then they started talking about some bet that Jaemin and Mark had going on. A bet that Jaemin could make me fall in love with him. Then he said that he had already won because he heard me last night.” Renjun couldn’t help it and started crying again.

“Oh my god” Chenle gasped. “So that’s why he came up to you on Valentine’s Day.”

Renjun nodded and sobbed. “He’s been playing me this whole time all to win a year’s worth of beer and weed from Mark.”

It took a moment for the gravity of the situation to sink in. Donghyuck sat down next to Renjun and gave him a big hug. “I’m so sorry Jun. What a horrible group of people.”

Jungwoo’s expression was very somber. “Did Lucas know about it?” he asked.

Renjun nodded. “I think so.”

Jungwoo bit his bottom lip and blinked away the beginnings of tears. “I can’t believe he would be okay with something so cruel. I can’t believe he didn’t tell me Jaemin was doing this to my _best friend_.” The tears started falling anyway. “He’s not the guy I thought he was.”

“Oh Woo” Renjun held his hands out for Jungwoo to hold. Jungwoo took his hands and let himself be pulled into a hug. Donghyuck and Chenle quickly wrapped their arms around the other boys too.

“Everything’s going to be alright” Chenle said soothingly.

“I know, but right now it really fucking hurts.” Renjun sobbed. “Falling in love is awful.”

“Oh Renjun” Jungwoo said as he stroked Renjun’s hair. “I’m glad you were so brave and let yourself love someone. I’m sorry that someone was such an awful person, but still, I’m proud of you.”

Renjun sniffled. “Thanks Woo.” He snuggled further into the hug. “Can you guys stay with me today?”

“Of course” they all responded. They were always there when he needed them.


	9. Chapter 9

_My god don't look at your phone_   
_ No one's gonna call you_   
_ Quit checking your volume_

Renjun really regretted going to school the following week. He had made his mother fire Jaemin from the florist job so there would be no contact that way, but school was a different story.

Every time he saw Jaemin’s face in the halls it was like someone was punching him in the gut. All the pain of everything that had happened came rushing back.

There was also the added inconvenience of Renjun having to walk back in the direction he came to avoid Jaemin trying to talk to him. More than once the boy had tried running after him, but Renjun had managed to escape him so far.

He knew Jungwoo was struggling with the same issue. When Jungwoo went home on Saturday night he had found Lucas on his front steps. After Lucas had apologized over and over, and begged Jungwoo to forgive him, Jungwoo broke things off and ran inside his house. Like Renjun, he was intent on avoiding Lucas at all costs.

Renjun was somewhat impressed with his abilities in avoiding Jaemin. However his lucky streak was broken on Friday. It was lunchtime and Renjun was headed to the cafeteria. As if he had teleported, Jaemin appeared out of nowhere and pushed Renjun into an empty classroom, shutting the door behind them.

Renjun stumbled into a desk from the force of the push. “What the fuck Jaemin?”

“I’m sorry but you kept avoiding me. I didn’t know what else to do.” Jaemin responded.

Renjun straightened himself up. “Well I made it pretty clear that I want nothing to do with you, so if you don’t mind I’m going to go to lunch.” Renjun tried to get to the door but Jaemin blocked his path. “Move” he commanded, but Jaemin didn’t budge.

“Just hear me out okay?” Jaemin pleaded. “Just listen to me now and if after that you still don’t want to be with me then I’ll leave you alone.”

“Fine” Renjun relented and sat down on the desk behind him. “Speak.”

“The bet started on Valentine’s Day. Mark suggested it because I was being a cocky asshole who thought he could make anyone fall in love with him. Mark picked you after you went off at that couple in the cafeteria. You were so anti-relationships that Mark felt like it would be an easy win for him.”

Jaemin continued to explain. “At first I was just hanging out with you because I wanted to win the bet, but pretty quickly I just started wanting to be with you and get to know you better. I couldn’t figure out how someone I barely knew could understand me so well. Looking back on it now, I was falling deeper and deeper for you. I just kept blaming how I felt on me wanting to win the bet, but now I know that wasn’t it.

“You’re amazing Renjun. You’re so beautiful, and smart, and talented. You listened to what _I_ wanted and you wanted me to be happy. I’ve never met someone like you before. I wish we had met another way but I know you now, and I don’t want to let you go.”

Renjun listened to everything Jaemin had to say, but he couldn’t accept it. “I don’t believe you. I can’t Jaemin, not after this.” Renjun was impressed that he wasn’t crying again.

Jaemin shoulders dropped. He looked so hurt that Renjun thought for a second that he might be telling the truth. “Please Renjun” he croaked out. “I really do love you. I love you so much. I _need_ you.”

Renjun shook his head violently. “Even if I did believe you, which I don’t, there’s still the fact that you purposefully tried to play with someone’s emotions in such an awful way. Don’t you realize how shitty that is; to make someone fall in love with you for a _bet_? That’s so fucked up that I can’t even begin to understand how you thought that was okay.”

“I know. I can’t even believe that I did that myself.” Jaemin walked up to Renjun and stood closely in front of him. “I didn’t know how precious love is until I met you. I realize now that all the attention people showed me before was just crushes and infatuation, not love. I know now that it was so fucked up for me to try and make you fall in love with me for something as stupid as free beer and weed.” He lowered his head, looking Renjun straight in the eyes. “I’ll feel sorry forever for hurting you as much as I have. Please, let me make it up to you. I’ll do whatever you ask me to, just please let me be a part of your life again.”

Renjun wanted to believe him. He wanted to be able to forgive him.

But he couldn’t. It hurt too much.

“I can’t forgive you Jaemin” he said softly. He got up off the desk and walked around Jaemin. “I don’t want you to be a part of my life anymore.”

Jaemin went into a panic. “No, Renjun, please wait …”

But Renjun had already run out the door.

Renjun stopped running when he thought he was in the clear. He rested for a moment against some lockers to catch his breath and calm himself before the tears came. The sound of his phone’s text message tone broke his whirring thoughts.

Unknown number: Hey

“That’s weird” Renjun thought, then responded.

Me: Who is this?

Unknown number: It’s Jeno.

Renjun’s brows furrowed. He never really talked to Jeno, despite them sharing a Math and English class, and couldn’t imagine why he wanted to talk to him now. He saved the number to his phone.

Me: How did you get my number? 

Jeno: I stole it from Jae’s phone.

Jeno: Did you want to come over to my place tonight? My parents are out of town.

“Oh I get it” Renjun muttered to himself. Jaemin must have put him up to this.

Me: Why? Is Jaemin going to be there? 

Jeno: No just me

Jeno: I thought we could hang out, just the two of us. We could chill and watch Netflix or something.

Renjun stopped and stared at his phone screen for what seemed like hours. Jeno just asked him to Netflix and chill. This was a booty call from one of Jaemin’s best friends. A guy who Renjun didn’t even know liked men that way.

Renjun knew he should just decline the offer – say thanks but no thanks. But he hated how much he could still feel Jaemin’s touch on his skin. He hated how the last person he kissed, touched, fucked was Jaemin. He desperately wanted to drown those memories out with something new.

Me: That sounds cool. When and where? 

Jeno: Great. 8pm @ 27 Saddlers Drive. Can’t wait.

“This is a bad idea” Renjun thought, but he dismissed it. He’d made so many bad choices lately, one more couldn’t hurt.

* * *

The first time Jeno saw Renjun they were in 10th grade.

Jeno had transferred to Lincoln High after getting into one too many fights at his old school. Rumors of his expulsion, and the reasons for it, unfortunately came with him to his new high school. As soon as Jeno walked through the door he already had a reputation of being a scary guy.

After an entire day of sideways glances and whispers behind his back, Jeno had had about enough of this new school. His last period was geography. He promptly chose a seat up the back and settled himself in for another hour of curious stares and whispers.

As more students filed into the classroom, Jeno’s eyes caught the most beautiful boy he had ever seen. His body was petite, his features dainty, yet he was loud and energetic with a fierce glint in his eye. Jeno couldn’t help but stare as the boy sat down at a table with his two friends, chatting animatedly.

At the start of the lesson the teacher handed a worksheet to everyone and instructed them to get into pairs to complete it. Jeno looked straight down at his worksheet, resolved to complete it himself.

“Um, excuse me.”

Jeno’s head snapped up to see who the owner of the voice was. It was him; the pretty one.

“I’m Renjun. My friends totally ditched me so they could work together. Can I do the worksheet with you?” he smiled hopefully and asked.

Jeno scoffed. “What? You aren’t afraid of me like everyone else?” he blurted out.

“Oh please” Renjun sat down next to him. “I don’t give a shit about who you beat up at your old school. As long as you don’t try and hit me, we won’t have a problem.”

“Huh” Jeno pondered. “I wish everyone else thought that way.”

“It’ll pass” Renjun said as he opened up his textbook to the correct page. “They’ll find something new to talk about soon enough.”

They worked mostly silently on the worksheet for the rest of the lesson. Jeno couldn’t help sneaking quick glances at Renjun the entire time. When the lesson finished and they were packing up, Renjun began the conversation again.

“You know, if you’re worried about people not liking you, the football team is having tryouts tomorrow. You seem like a sporty type, and I can’t think of a better way to get everyone to like you.”

Jeno considered it. He was always more into running and athletics rather than team sports. He never liked to work with others, and the jocks at his old school repulsed him. But Renjun had a good point; the footballers were always the most popular people.

“Thanks for the tip” he said before Renjun walked away to rejoin his friends.

Jeno tried out for the football team and got accepted, meeting Jaemin, Mark, Lucas and Jisung in the process. Renjun was right. It seemed everyone forgot about his bad reputation when he became part of the right crowd. Jeno learnt very quickly the hierarchy of the high school; and that Renjun was a drama and musical theatre type whom he should avoid at all costs. At the time Jeno simply accepted it and thought it would be easy to move on from his small crush.

It wasn’t easy.

Through the next few years Renjun seemed to become more beautiful in Jeno’s eyes. He tried to distract himself with other people. He messed around with girls and even a few guys that he’d notice staring at his body for too long in the locker room. He liked his life at school, he liked his friends, but he wanted Renjun too.

His unachievable desire became even worse after Mark picked Renjun for his bet with Jaemin. Out of all the people for him to pick, he had to pick him. That day when he got home he screamed into his pillow out of frustration until his throat hurt.

Jeno noticed Jaemin falling for Renjun. How could he not when the same thing had happened to him. Jeno noticed Jaemin’s soft smile whenever he would talk about or look at Renjun. He knew that the giant amount of time he was spending with Renjun wasn’t for the bet. Jaemin would never work that hard for anything; even if it did mean he could get high for a year without paying a cent.

Jeno had enough of it by Mark’s party. Renjun looked so slender and perfect in his turtleneck that he felt like he’d gone insane. Once he’d smoked up enough courage to confess to the boy, he looked throughout the entire house. But as he walked past Mark’s bedroom door he heard Renjun. He heard him moaning Jaemin’s name.

Jeno felt like something broke inside him at that moment. All the jealousy and anger and _hurt_ seemed to boil over. Jeno ran out of Mark’s house, punching a hole in one of the walls on his way out.

Jeno had almost resigned himself to permanent unhappiness until the morning at the diner. It had played out so perfectly. Jeno was sure that Jaemin was going to let everyone know his true feelings, and Jeno was so lucky that he didn’t get the chance to before Renjun stopped listening. He believed Jaemin’s feelings were true but that didn’t mean he deserved Renjun, and clearly Renjun thought so as well.

Jeno didn’t want to waste another opportunity. He never imagined that Renjun would respond to his texts, let alone agree to hang out with him. It filled him with so much hope that he thought he might burst. He was going to show Renjun every reason to forget Jaemin and be with him.

* * *

It was 8pm on a Friday night, and Renjun was outside Jeno’s house.

He did his best to stifle the “This is not smart!” voice that was currently zipping around his mind, and knocked on the door.

When the door opened up and revealed Jeno, Renjun couldn’t help but notice how good he looked. Jeno had always been the definition of tall, dark and handsome; but Renjun had never fully absorbed that fact until now. Jeno’s long legs were clad in black jeans and the grey muscle tee he was wearing showed off his arms nicely.

“Hey” Jeno said, eyes serious and scanning over Renjun. “Come inside” he offered and stood aside to let Renjun in.

“Hey” Renjun greeted as he stepped inside.

Jeno continued to study Renjun. “You look good” he complimented. It made Renjun feel nice but also confused. The stuck-in-the-closet athletes he’s hooked up with previously never bothered with such things.

Jeno led Renjun to his living room and promptly threw himself down on his couch. “So, what do you want to watch?”

So this was how he was going to play it. “Look can we skip the bullshit?” Renjun asked. “You didn’t really invite me here to watch Netflix, did you?”

Jeno laughed at that. “You’re really something else.” Then his eyes got dark and narrow as he stared, and Renjun literally felt the sexual tension in the room come to life. “Come here” Jeno whispered to him, and who was Renjun to resist.

Renjun crawled into Jeno’s lap and immediately Jeno’s hands were all over him. His long fingers brushed over Renjun’s sides, back, thighs, ass; eventually stilling with one hand on the back of his neck and one hand grasping his chin, tilting his face closer. Jeno stared deep into Renjun’s eyes, making the smaller boy feel weak.

“I’ve wanted you for so long” Jeno whispered against his lips. Renjun wondered just how long he’d been waiting to fuck him and why he thought that now, after everything had happened with Jaemin, was the right time.

Before Renjun had a chance to think about Jaemin again, Jeno pulled his neck forward and crashed their lips together. Jeno was a _good_ kisser; far better than Renjun thought he would be. Jeno wasted no time in diving his tongue in Renjun’s mouth and using it in all the right ways. Jeno had an air of controlled dominance about him that Renjun had always loved in guys.

Except this time he didn’t feel anything. Jeno was doing so many things that Renjun would have normally enjoyed but for some reason it felt like his body and brain were disconnected. He didn’t feel anything for Jeno, and maybe that was why he wasn’t feeling anything as he touched him.

Na Jaemin had ruined casual sex for him. Wonderful.

Renjun’s thoughts were disrupted when Jeno started to suck and bite harshly on his neck. Renjun could recognise that physically it felt good, but it was so muted. “Just pull yourself together and forget about Jaemin” Renjun told himself. “This feeling will pass.”

Renjun decided to be more proactive about the situation and tugged Jeno’s shirt off. The other resumed planting hickeys all over Renjun’s neck and unbuttoned his shirt for him, exposing the expanse of Renjun’s pale chest and stomach.

“Fuck you’re so beautiful” Jeno spoke between kisses on Renjun’s lips, neck and chest. “You were teasing me so much when you were with Jaemin. You’ve no idea how jealous I was.”

All Renjun could do was whine, which was meant to indicate to Jeno that he should shut the fuck up, but just sounded desperate and needy. Renjun began to grind his crotch into Jeno’s, hoping it would distract the other.

Jeno moaned out at the contact; spurred on by Renjun’s enthusiasm. He pushed Renjun down onto the couch and crawled on top of him in between his legs. He ground his hips down and was delighted when Renjun let out a small moan. Jeno resumed kissing Renjun all over and started pinching his nipples softly.

“So happy that you text me back” Jeno mumbled against his skin. “All Jae could talk about all week was how much he loves and misses you, but now you’ve chosen me and…”

Jeno was interrupted as Renjun pushed him off of his body and got up off the couch, brows furrowed as a million thoughts swam through his mind. “Jaemin told _you_ that he loves me?” he interrogated.

“What does it matter?” Jeno, now sitting on the edge of the couch, reached out and pulled Renjun towards him by the hips and started to plant soft kisses along his stomach. “You told him today that you didn’t want him.”

Renjun pushed Jeno away again. “I didn’t believe what he told me. How could I after what he did?”

Jeno looked confused. “Why would he keep lying? You heard everyone say that the bet was over, that he’d already won. Why would he lie about loving you if he was just using you for a bet that was already over?”

Renjun had never thought things through in that way. He had been so hurt by Jaemin that his automatic response was not to trust anything he said. But Jeno was right, it didn’t make sense for Jaemin to continue pursuing him, unless…

“I have to go” Renjun said, moving towards the front door. “I have to go find Jaemin.”

“What?” Jeno asked incredulously. “Why?”

“Because now I know that he really does love me” Renjun called out behind him, almost at the door. Renjun was still mad about the bet, but with this new information he needed to talk to Jaemin.

“Wait” Jeno said as he grabbed Renjun’s arm to stop him from leaving. “Yes, Jaemin does love you but I love you more.”

Renjun turned back to Jeno, eyes wide in shock. Jeno continued his confession. “I’ve loved you ever since I transferred to our school. You were the only one who wasn’t scared of me. I can’t get over you, no matter how hard I try.”

Renjun breathed slowly and deeply, trying to comprehend everything. “Jeno” he spoke softly, “we don’t even know each other.”

Jeno shook his head vigorously. “No I do know you Renjun, and you can get to know me. It only took you just over a month to fall in love with Jaemin. I swear I’ll make you fall in love with me even faster.” Jeno’s eyes were so pleading and distraught, it made Renjun feel even worse about the situation.

“I’m sorry Jeno” Renjun said as he gently pulled Jeno’s hand from his arm. “I wouldn’t have come here if I’d known how you felt about me. I never wanted to lead you on.” Jeno leaned his back against the wall with his head down as he absorbed Renjun’s words. He looked crushed.

“I’m sorry” Renjun apologized again and twisted the doorknob in front of him. However as he exited he almost crashed into someone in front of him.

It was Jaemin.

Jaemin’s eyes went wide and his mouth fell open, clearly very surprised to see Renjun inside Jeno’s house. Jaemin’s eyes wandered about taking in the sight of Renjun’s ruffled hair, unbuttoned shirt and fresh hickeys all over his body. Jeno moved just behind Renjun into Jaemin’s sight, and he could see that he was just as disheveled as Renjun was: no shirt, messy hair, swollen lips.

Renjun went into panic mode as Jaemin was looking around. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out what had gone on between him and Jeno.

“Jaemin I can explain” Renjun rushed towards him. “I was just about to come find you.”

Jaemin didn’t look at Renjun when he talked. He just kept staring at Jeno.

Renjun tried again. “Jaemin, please, let’s go somewhere and…”

“Tell me this isn’t what it looks like.” Jaemin said sternly to Jeno, his gaze still fiercely locked. “Tell me that my _best friend_ didn’t fuck the one person I’ve ever loved.” Jaemin’s fists were clenched and his breathing was heavy.

Jeno’s laugh was like a knife cutting through the intensity of the moment. “That’s so funny coming from you, Jaemin, because that is _exactly_ what you did to me.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Jaemin snarled at him.

“I’ve loved him for years” Jeno walked up to Jaemin and hissed in his face. “I’ve loved him for so long but I could never tell you all because we weren’t meant to like the drama nerds, especially if it was a guy. But then you and Mark made that stupid bet and suddenly you were allowed to be with him and I had to watch from the sidelines. Do you know how much that fucking _hurt_?”

“How was I supposed to know if you never fucking told me, huh?” Jaemin spat back. “If I had known I never would have gone there, but you _knew_. You knew how I felt about him and you went and betrayed me anyway.”

“I didn’t betray you, Jaemin” Jeno spoke softly. “Renjun’s not yours, and he doesn’t want you anymore. So if he wants me to fuck him, then I’ll do it without any regrets.”

Jaemin’s eyes flicked over to Renjun, taking in his disheveled appearance once more, before he stepped back and punched Jeno right in his jaw.

Renjun heard the crack of bone on bone before he could take in anything else. The punch made Jeno stagger but it didn’t send him to the ground, allowing him to launch himself at Jaemin with a fury.

As soon as the boys started to trade blows Renjun was shrieking at them to stop, but they wouldn’t listen. Renjun could clearly see that Jeno had a lot more experience fighting than Jaemin, and Jeno soon was on top of the other boy. Jeno gave a couple of quick punches to Jaemin’s face to stun him before grabbing both his wrists and pinning his hands to the ground.

“Give up, Jae” Jeno stop down to him. “You know you can’t win against me.”

“You’re a fucking bastard” Jaemin snarled up at him. However a few seconds later, the tension in Jaemin’s body let out. “Alright, let me get up.”

Jeno released Jaemin’s hands and got up off him, cautiously backing away.

“Jaem” Renjun gasped out as he bounded up to Jaemin, grasping his face in his hands to inspect his wounds. “Please let me explain…”

Renjun’s hands were slapped away. “I didn’t think you were like this, Renjun.” Jaemin didn’t look him in the eye. “I didn’t think you were that spiteful.”

Renjun opened his mouth but no noise came out. He couldn’t deny that he had hoped hooking up with Jeno would hurt Jaemin in some way, or at least mess with his head. Jaemin’s eyes finally met Renjun’s and before he could say something, Jaemin cut him off.

“You got your wish, Renjun. I’m through with this.”

“No, wait” Renjun sobbed out, but Jaemin had already sprinted off down the street, leaving Renjun’s sight in seconds.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically this chapter is heavily inspired by (cough cough ripping off) A Cinderella Story (2004). I highly suggest you watch the movie because it's cheesy and awesome and everything you need.

_Just let me be sad and lonely_

“Seriously, what the fuck is up with you two?”

It was lunchtime on Monday and Jaemin, Mark, Jeno and Jisung were at their usual lunch table. Except this time their friendly banter was replaced with a palpable tension exuding from Jeno and Jaemin. With the two sporting dark bruises on their faces it was clear something serious had gone down. The two seemed intent on ignoring each other except for the occasional ice cold glare, and Mark was having none of it. When neither of the boys answered his question, he continued.

“Like something’s obviously happened between you two. What is it?”

“It’s none of your business” Jeno grumbled at him.

Mark just rolled his eyes. “Well whatever it is you’d better get over it soon. We’ve got a game tomorrow night, remember?”

“Yeah c’mon guys” Jisung smiled brightly. “Don’t you want to win?”

Jeno and Jaemin just glared at each other.

“Well we better win. We’ve got those college recruiters coming to visit, remember?” Mark added.

Jaemin had forgotten. With everything that had been going on lately with Renjun, Jaemin’s mind had little room for anything else.

“My parents are coming to watch too. How about you guys?” asked Jisung.

“Mine are” answered Mark and Jeno. Jaemin grunted in the affirmative. His parents had insisted that they come to this game. They wanted to “watch their boy earn his scholarship”. Jaemin wished the earth would open up beneath him and swallow him whole.

“Where the hell is Lucas, anyway?” Jaemin asked, trying to change the subject.

Mark shrugged. “No idea… Oh wait” he looked over to the entrance of the cafeteria. “There he is. What’s he doing?”

Lucas was climbing up on top of a table in the center of the cafeteria, greatly annoying the people that were seated there. Once he was on top he shouted out “Hey everyone, I need your attention. Look at me everyone!”

The cafeteria gradually fell silent. Jaemin looked over to Renjun’s table and saw that all the boys there were staring intently, particularly Jungwoo.

“Umm hello” Lucas was nervous but he kept his voice loud for all to hear. “Most of you probably just know me as one of the good looking guys on the football team, and honestly for a long time that’s all I thought I was too. But recently I’ve met someone who changed all that for me and they made me realize that I’m more than just a jock. They made me realize that I can be whoever I want to be, so long as I’m brave enough. And the person I want to be is someone who can admit to everyone who they love.”

As Lucas took a pause, hushed murmurs fell over the entire cafeteria.

“Holy shit is Lucas about to come out to the whole school?” Mark whispered.

“I think so” Jaemin whispered back. “Let’s go give him some support.” The boys got up from their seat and moved around the table Lucas was standing on, ready to throw down if anyone should say something negative.

Lucas took a series of deep breaths before continuing. Once he was ready he pointed straight at Jungwoo, earning a very shocked expression on the other boy’s face. “This man, his name is Jungwoo and he’s amazing. He can sing and dance so fucking good, he’s super smart – like seriously he gets straight As without even trying that hard. He never holds back punches and always demands the best out of everyone.”

The murmurs from the crowd were getting louder as everyone was catching on. Jungwoo was frozen still, unable to look away from Lucas and into the glaring eyes of curious students. Lucas took one final pause before blurting out “So yeah, I’m in love with him.”

The cafeteria erupted into a chaotic mess of voices as everyone exclaimed their shock, but Lucas didn’t care. He jumped off the table and headed straight to Jungwoo. The rest of the crew followed him.

“Woo, listen to me please. I know I hurt you and betrayed your trust. You’re right to be angry. I should have told you straight away what Jaemin was doing to Renjun. I’m really sorry I didn’t, to you as well Renjun.” Lucas gave a quick nod to Renjun before turning his focus back to Jungwoo. “I want to be with you Jungwoo. I want to hold your hand as we walk down the halls. I want to carry your books to class. I want to sneak into your bedroom on weeknights when your parents think you’re doing homework. I want you to be my date to prom. I want it all, and if you take me back I promise that I’ll never tell you another lie ever again. I promise I’ll be someone you can trust.”

By now the crowd had quietened down to listen to what Lucas was saying. An eerie silence lingered in the air as Lucas (and everyone) waited for Jungwoo’s response.

Jungwoo spent a little while looking into Lucas’ eyes, holding his gaze, as he tried to decide what to say. He broke the eye-contact to look at Renjun, wordlessly communicating. Renjun simply gave Jungwoo a soft smile and a nod. Jungwoo smiled back at Renjun before bounding up from his seat and leaping into Lucas’ arms.

The cafeteria was completely silent as people took in the sight before them. People were frozen from not knowing how to react. Suddenly Chenle let out a loud “wooooooo” and started clapping. Renjun and Donghyuck immediately joined in and cheered. Soon others were joining in and giving their applause, as did Jaemin, Jeno, Mark and Jisung. Though not everyone was joining in, Jaemin was glad Lucas was getting some support.

Jungwoo took Lucas’ hand and led him out of the cafeteria, probably to go make out somewhere. As they left the cheering died down and everyone returned to what they were doing. Jaemin looked over to Renjun and their eyes met, and Jaemin felt that same hollowness in his chest that he’d felt on Saturday. What made it worse was that Renjun looked how he felt. Jaemin felt an instinctual need to go up to him but he pushed it aside and followed his friends back to their table.

“Wow that was crazy” Jisung said as they sat down.

“Yeah” Mark agreed. “I wonder what’s going to happen now. I noticed some of the other guys on the team weren’t cheering. I hope they don’t say shit to Lucas.”

“They won’t” Jaemin assured them. “They know coach will listen to me if I say they should be off the team.”

Mark hummed in recognition. “So are you going to be begging Renjun to take you back in front of the whole school too?”

Jaemin’s eyes immediately flicked to Jeno, giving him a glare. “No that ship has definitely sailed. Jeno might though.”

“Wait, what?” asked a surprised Jisung.

“They fucked on the weekend” Jaemin spit out bitterly. He had planned on keeping it a secret, not wanting to out Jeno, but he was too furious.

“Dude! How did that even happen?” question Mark.

Jeno was remarkably calm. “You don’t own him Jaemin. Renjun can do what he wants, or who he wants.”

“You absolute…” Jaemin was cut off.

“What does it even matter?” Jeno continued. “You said you were done with him on Saturday. Seems like you still want him.”

Jaemin shut up at that. Of course he still wanted Renjun, but the idea of being with him was just too upsetting. He didn’t understand how he could be so mad at someone and yet still adore them. “You’re right” Jaemin huffed out, clearly still pissed. “It doesn’t matter; Renjun can do what he wants.”

With that, Jaemin got up from the table and stormed off.

* * *

Renjun, Jungwoo, Chenle and Donghyuck were all hanging out in Renjun’s room. It was the first time the group had a chance to talk to Jungwoo about the events of the previous day as Jungwoo and Lucas had promptly skipped the rest of the school day to have lots of gross, cute sex while their parents weren’t home.

“I still can’t believe Lucas did that.” Chenle was still amazed. “Never in my life did I think I would see a jock being openly gay.”

“I know” Donghyuck agreed. “It kind of gives some hope for the rest of us.”

Renjun raised an eyebrow. “Still talking to Mark I take it.”

Donghyuck hung his head a little. “I wasn’t after I found out about the bet, but he kept messaging me and I cracked.” He looked up at Renjun. “I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay” Renjun sighed. “You can’t help how you feel, even if he is a bit of a dickhead.”

Donghyuck nodded. “He knows what he did was wrong, I made sure of that.”

There was a pause until Jungwoo asked tentatively “So did you talked to Jaemin after Lucas and I left?”

“No” Renjun was surprised. “Why would I do that?”

“Oh” Jungwoo pulled back. “I just thought since you wanted to talk to him so badly after he saw you and Jeno together that you would try again at school.”

Renjun shook his head solemnly. “The more I think and me and Jaemin, the more I realize that we wouldn’t work together.”

“But you said that it was true that he actually loves you” stated a confused Donghyuck.

“That doesn’t mean I can forgive him for what he did. And even if I did, what would our relationship be like? I know him. Sure he came out to his close friends, but he would never come out to his parents or the rest of the school. I don’t want to be his dirty little secret.” Renjun sighed deeply. “It wouldn’t work, and anyway he hates me for hooking up with Jeno.”

“Does he still think you two slept together?” Chenle asked quietly.

Renjun shrugged. “I don’t know it depends if Jeno said anything.”

The group fell into a contemplative silence. Jungwoo was the first to break it. “I think you should talk to Jaemin” he encouraged.

“Look Woo” Renjun began, “I already said that a relationship wouldn’t work between us. I don’t see how talking to him again would convince me of that.”

Jungwoo shook his head. “I think you should talk to him to get some closure. You’re still hung up on him and I think talking to him would get everything off your chest. It will help you move on.”

“I think you should too. It will help you know for sure how you feel about everything.” Donghyuck added.

Renjun considered it. “I do have some things I’d like to say to him. I at least want to clear up what happened with Jeno.” Renjun got up off his bed and moved towards the door.

“You’re going to go talk to him now?” asked a surprised Chenle.

“Well yeah” confirmed Renjun. “I want this all to be over with as soon as possible.” He wanted the awful feeling that had begun since he found out about the bet to finally be gone.

Jungwoo checked his watch. “The guys have got a game on today. It’s starting in just under an hour. If we leave now we should be able to catch Jaemin before he goes out to play.”

Chenle got up too. “Well the let’s get out of here. I’ll drive.” He said as he slipped through the door and skipped down the stairs. The other boys all followed suit, hopping into Chenle’s car and driving (very fast) to the school.

As the pulled into the parking lot Jungwoo said “I just texted Lucas asking where they are, he said they’re in the locker room.”

“Okay” Renjun said, hyping himself up as they walked to the locker rooms.

“You can do this” softly encouraged Donghyuck.

“Do you want me to text Lucas and ask him to bring Jaemin out here?” Jungwoo asked Renjun as they approached their destination.

“No need” Renjun practically yelled as he burst through the locker room door.

Renjun was met with immediate cries of “dude what the fuck?” and “get out of here freak” as the door swung shut behind him. He ignored them all, searching through the rows of lockers to find Jaemin. Eventually he saw him sitting way up the back on a bench, surrounded by all his friends. He didn’t see Renjun march up to him until he was right next to him.

“Renjun wha…” began a startled Jaemin, but he was cut off.

“Look I’ve got some shit to say to you so you’re going to sit there and listen.” Renjun wasn’t yelling, but he wasn’t quiet either.

“Should we be here for this?” Mark asked no one in particular.

“Doesn’t matter to me.” Renjun was riding a wave of adrenaline and he needed to get everything out before he came crashing back down. “Firstly Jeno and I didn’t sleep together, we just kissed. I stopped when Jeno told me that you’ve been telling all your friends that you love me, and I realized you weren’t lying. Then Jeno…” Renjun’s eyes flicked to Jeno and back to Jaemin, “… he confessed to me but I turned him down. I tried to leave after that and that’s how I ran into you.”

Renjun saw how Jeno hunched his shoulders, probably reliving the awful moment. Renjun also noticed the absolutely foul look Jaemin shot Jeno’s way.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Jaemin asked Renjun.

“Because it wouldn’t have mattered.” Renjun responded. “We would never work out because you’re a coward. The thing about you is that you know what you want but you’re too scared to tell people. You’re too scared to live the life you want. You’ll never do what Lucas did; tell your parents and the whole school that you want to be with me even though you _love_ me. And you’ll never tell your parents that you’d rather be a florist than play college football. You’d rather let everyone else dictate what your life should be than take control of it yourself, which is probably why you agreed to that stupid bet. You’re not an asshole, you’re just weak Jaemin.”

Jaemin looked like he wanted to say something, but Renjun wasn’t done. “You hurt me more than I’ve ever been hurt before. But even after all that it’s you who I feel sorry for. I know that I’ll move on from this and that I’ll have a good life where I’m happy, but I don’t think you will. “

A voice hollered in the near distance. “Come on boys, gather round so we can move out. We got a game to play” the football coach called out.

“Dude we should go” suggested Mark.

“Just give me a minute” Jaemin snipped at him and turned back to Renjun.

Renjun could feel himself tearing up but thankfully he held them back. “You could be happy, Jaemin. You could have everything you want. But I can’t wait around for you to figure it all out. You’ll just hurt me again.”

“Guys c’mon!” The group had been found out by the other team members. “We got a game to win.” Renjun took that as his que to leave and started to make his way out of the locker room.

Renjun heard Jaemin call his name out after him, but he didn’t let himself turn around.

Renjun breathed a big sigh of relief as soon as he left the locker room. His friends gathered around him instantly.

“How’d it go?” asked Chenle nervously.

“It was good” nodded Renjun. “I just said what I had to say and then left. Now I can move on.” Renjun did feel strangely accomplished. “Can we do something tonight? I don’t want to be alone.”

“Well we were planning on watching the game” revealed Donghyuck.

“I kind of have to because Lucas is playing” Jungwoo admitted. “But I understand if you don’t want to. I can blow it off.”

“No don’t. I’ll be fine.” assured Renjun. “Let’s go to the game and support Lucas.”

“Are you sure?” questioned Chenle.

“I’ll be okay. I’ll have to see Jaemin again at school anyway. It’s no problem.”

“Okay let’s go” Jungwoo smiled and the group made its way to the grandstand.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically this chapter is heavily inspired by (cough cough ripping off) A Cinderella Story (2004). I highly suggest you watch the movie because it's cheesy and awesome and everything you need.

_I'm sick of the kissing cult_

As Jaemin ran out onto the field he was the most uneasy he had ever been before playing a game. His mind kept replaying all the things Renjun had said to him over and over. The worst part was that Renjun was right, about everything.

Jaemin quickly tried to block Renjun out of his mind and tried to focus on his surroundings. The crowd was wild, the cheerleaders were doing their routine and soon he would have to be the football captain and lead his team to victory, just as he had done countless times before.

“Oh there’s Woo” Lucas pointed towards the grandstand and waved ecstatically. Jaemin looked over to see Jungwoo and his friends holding a giant banner that read ‘GO LUCAS!’

One of those friends was Renjun.

Jaemin urged himself to focus again and resisted looking back to the grandstand.

“Jaemin!”

Jaemin snapped his head towards the call and saw his father on the outer edge of the field near his coach and the alternate players. Confused, he jogged over to him. “Dad, what are you doing here?”

His father beamed at him proudly. “I’m here to support my boy” he said, clapping him on the shoulder. “Your mother is in the grandstand with Mark’s parents, but your coach said I could watch from here.”

“You didn’t need to do that Dad.” Jaemin was feeling enough pressure without his father being right there on the field with him.

“Nonsense” exclaimed his father. “I want to be right here, cheering you on. Plus when you’re in college you’ll be playing all over the country and I’ll barely get to be at your games.”

Jaemin took a deep breath and tried to focus once again. “I have to go back out now.”

“Of course, of course. Go show those scouts what you’re made of.”

Jaemin took another deep breath and jogged back out to the team. Seconds after he rejoined them the referee waved him over to the center for the coin toss. Jaemin nodded to the referee and shook the hand of the opposing team’s captain.

“Okay boys, let’s get this going. You call the coin toss” said the referee, pointing to the other captain.

“Heads” the captain called as the coin spun through the air.

It landed on tails.

“That’s tails” stated the referee. “Do you want to kick or receive?” he asked Jaemin.

“We’ll kick” Jaemin answered. Giving the two a final nod he ran back to his teammates.

“We’re kicking” Jaemin relayed. “Jisung will do it. Hands in everyone.” The team formed a circle and put their hands in the middle. “1 2 3 let’s get it!” the team chanted together, throwing their hands up in the air. “Okay get into position” directed Jaemin.

Jaemin’s heart was racing as his team spread out. All he needed to do was play this game, and win, and impress the college scouts so they would give him a scholarship, and he also needed to stop himself from looking into the stands and seeing Renjun so he wouldn’t completely fall apart. That was all.

Deep breaths, deep breaths.

The referee blew the whistle.

* * *

Renjun couldn’t help but look at Jaemin as the football game went on. Even though he looked pretty much the same as everyone else on the team with his pads and helmet on, Renjun couldn’t keep his eyes from following him around. As with the last game he’d seen, he admired the strange elegance Jaemin had whilst playing football. Jungwoo was sitting beside him yelling every time Lucas got ahold of the ball. Jungwoo was so cute when he cheered for his boyfriend, clearly excited to be there supporting him. It was lovely and Renjun was so happy for him.

But it also reminded him of what he didn’t have.

Though it was hard, Renjun wanted to support Lucas and Jungwoo so he managed to keep it together. Before he knew it, there was only a minute left to the game. A time out had been called and each team was huddled up.

“Oh my god the other team is four points ahead” Chenle said to him. “They’ll need a touchdown to win.”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine” Jungwoo said. “Jaemin’s so good; he’ll do it for sure.” Jungwoo then glanced guiltily at Renjun. “Sorry” he mumbled.

Renjun looked out onto the field to see Jaemin, helmet off and taking a knee in front of his team, clearly mapping out a plan for them. The cheerleaders started up a chant to encourage him and the crowd quickly joined in. Soon enough everyone was standing and chanting “JAE-MIN, JAE-MIN, JAE-MIN, JAE-MIN…”

Renjun couldn’t take it anymore.

“Hey guys” he yelled over the chanting to his friends. “I don’t think I can do this anymore. I’m going to go.”

“Do you need a lift home?” asked Chenle.

Renjun shook his head. “I’ll just walk. It will be nice to clear my head.” Renjun hugged each of his friends goodbye and he moved past everyone to get to the stairs.

Jaemin felt himself cracking under the pressure. Everyone was chanting his name. His father and coach were standing at the sidelines yelling encouragements and strategies to him. His team was staring at him, waiting for direction. In a moment of weakness Jaemin looked into the stands for Renjun. He panicked when he saw that Renjun was no longer standing with his friends but a quick scan found him again. He was leaving; making his way past the throng of excited people in his row and trying to get to the stairs.

It suddenly hit Jaemin that the best thing that had ever happened to him was walking out of his life for good. That if he let Renjun go now that would truly be the end. So Jaemin did what he should have done a long time ago.

Jaemin was brave.

“Sorry boys but I gotta go.”

“What?” the team all cried out at him.

“Jeno, you think you can take over?” Jaemin asked.

“Um yeah man” Jeno was confused but would always be there for Jaemin. “Does this mean we’re good now?”

Jaemin nodded. “I’m still mad at you, but yeah we’re good.”

Jaemin couldn’t see Jeno’s mouth through his helmet, but his eyes showed that he was smiling.

Without wasting any more time, Jaemin sprinted off the field towards the grandstand. As he tried to run past his father and his coach, his father reached out and grabbed his arm. “Jaemin, what the hell are you doing?”

“I’m leaving” he answered. “They can handle this without me.” To the side his coached just shrugged and sent one of the alternate places to fill Jaemin’s spot.

“What?” His father’s brows furrowed. “But the scouts are here, you’re throwing away everything you’ve ever wanted.”

“I never wanted this, and now I’m going after something that I do want.” Jaemin wrenched his arm away from his father and continued running towards the grandstand, ignoring his screams of “Jaemin get back here right now!” In the distance the referee blew the whistle for the game to restart.

Jaemin reached the stairs the same time Renjun did. Jaemin looked up at Renjun from the bottom of the stairs, locking eyes with his beautiful yet confused expression. He clearly hadn’t noticed that Jaemin had left the field until now. Jaemin sprinted up to him so that they were face to face.

“Jaemin, what are you doing?” Renjun asked softly.

“I’m being the man you deserve” Jaemin said before he kissed him.

Jaemin was relieved that Renjun didn’t pull away from the kiss. On the contrary he could feel Renjun smiling into the kiss and wrapping his arms around Jaemin’s neck to keep him close. Jaemin didn’t care that the whole school and his parents could see him. He didn’t care that he had thrown away his chance of getting a football scholarship. The kiss was perfect because Renjun was perfect. And Renjun was finally his.

A sharp whistle blast and the crowd erupting around them made them break apart from their kiss. Jaemin looked out into the field. “Holy shit, Jeno scored a touchdown. They won the game.”

“Well I guess this is a great day for everyone” giggled Renjun.

Jaemin turned back to face him and brushed his nose up against his. “I love you” he said gently.

Renjun gave him a soft smile. “I love you too.”

As the crowd celebrated around them the two shared kisses and whispers of love, and realized that it didn’t matter how the universe had brought them together, just that it had made them better because of it.

** _The End_ **


	12. Epilogue: One Year Later

Jaemin was in an art gallery with Sunny and Chen; all three were frantically running around to set up for an exhibit. Chen was carefully taking out delicate ceramic vases out of their boxes and giving them to Jaemin to carefully place on stands set up through the gallery. Sunny was placing pre-prepared bouquets inside of each vase –also under the guidance of Jaemin. In Jaemin’s mind this exhibit had to go perfectly.

Because it was Jaemin’s exhibit. His first exhibit. And he could not have been more terrified.

“This is looking beautiful, Jaemin. Everyone’s going to love it.” Sunny commented.

“They sure will.” Chen tacked on. “It’s such an inspired idea to use both your floral arrangement and pottery skills in the one exhibit.”

Jaemin smiled brightly at the two of them. “Well I have the two of you to thank for it. You both taught me everything I know.”

Sunny returned his smile. “Oh please, we just taught you the basics. You worked out the majority of it on your own. Give yourself some credit. You’re a true talent Jaemin.” The comment made Jaemin blush and look down at his feet.

Chen checked his watch. “Alright it’s almost show time. Jaemin, double check everything is ready and then we can start letting people in.”

After Jaemin made his rounds he signaled for Chen to open the doors and watched, completely motionless, as people filed in. He watched everyone carefully as they examined his pieces. After a few minutes Jaemin felt himself loosen up and decided to walk around the gallery and take it all in. As a waiter walked past with a tray of sparkling wine, he grabbed one and sipped it to calm his nerves.

“Now if I remember correctly, you still aren’t old enough to drink that” said a familiar voice behind him.

Jaemin turned around to find Renjun smiling cheekily at him. Jaemin laughed and pulled Renjun into a hug and kissed the top of his head. “You’re late” he mumbled into him.

Renjun pulled back to look up at him. “Sorry we’re late. The traffic was a lot worse than we expected.”

“We?” Jaemin asked, confused.

“Bro!” Taeyong yelled, suddenly appearing from the crowd. Taeyong was wearing ripped jeans and a snapback turned backwards, attracting the attention of the well-dressed art lovers in the gallery. “You’ve got some sick shit here; I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this.”

Jaemin glared at Renjun who was still in his embrace. “You told him?”

“I thought you already had.” Renjun defended himself. “I asked him if he wanted to carpool, since we’re at the same college and all and it’s an hour’s drive. Anyway look how excited he is for you.”

Jaemin sighed and buried his face into Renjun’s neck. “Its fine, I don’t care. I’m just glad you’re here.”

Renjun squeezed Jaemin to him even tighter. “I’m glad I’m here too. Everything looks amazing, I’m so proud of you.”

Jaemin lifted his head up to give Renjun and quick kiss, then spun him around so he could give Renjun a back hug and observe the gallery and all the work he had done. “This is all because of you” he spoke softly into Renjun’s ear. “I would never have done this without you.”

Renjun giggled. “Well I’m glad I can be your inspiration.”

Jaemin kissed Renjun’s neck softly. “Be my inspiration forever?” Jaemin asked cutely.

Renjun tilted his head back to look Jaemin in the eye. “I think I can manage that.”

As he and Renjun kissed in the crowded gallery Jaemin was so grateful that through an awful bet made with his idiot friend, he had found the things that made him truly happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've gotten this far then thanks for sticking with this and enjoying the story


End file.
